England launch Rugby World Cup 42 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2015 SATURDAY, SportsSports

GRONINGEN: Marseille’s Lucas Ocampos (right) tries to score with a bicycle kick during the Europe League Group F soccer match between Groningen and Olympique Marseille. —AP Liverpool, Celtic held in Europa League

PARIS: Liverpool conceded a late equaliser as they began their ond yellow after taking out and Lasse Schone Meanwhile, Celtic manager Ronny Deila hopes his side’s Europa League campaign with a 1-1 draw at Bordeaux, while 10- earned Ajax a share of the spoils six minutes from the end. impressive Europa League performance against Ajax can kick- man Celtic drew 2-2 away to Ajax on Thursday. “We have been through a tough period. This is a good start. start their Scottish Premiership campaign. Back-to-back losses to West Ham and Manchester United in Good defence and good organisation. The confidence will come. Deila’s team held the Dutch giants to a 2-2 draw in the English had increased the pressure on When we played 11 v 11, they didn’t have too many chances,” on Thursday despite being reduced to 10 men. It Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers but Adam Lallana’s sublime sec- Celtic manager Ronny Deila told BT Sport. was a good end to a tough week for Deila’s side after they lost ond-half goal in France looked destined to hand the Reds all The late setback was all the more frustrating for Deila’s side as at Aberdeen to slip five points behind the Dons at the top of three points in their Group B opener. group favourites Fenerbahce crashed to a 3-1 defeat at home to the Scottish Premiership. The visitors were pegged back nine minutes from time Norwegian outfit Molde. The Scottish champions don’t have long to rest before they though as substitute Jussie slammed a loose ball beyond Simon made it 10 straight wins under new host fifth placed Dundee tomorrow, but Deila hopes the per- Mignolet to salvage a point for Bordeaux. coach Thomas Tuchel after the leaders came from formance in the Netherlands gives his players a confidence “We can always be disappointed to not have won after hav- behind to beat Russian outfit FC Krasnodar 2-1 in Group C. boost to take into the match. ing led, but in European football, picking up a point away from Dortmund, who came through two rounds of qualifying to “As a team we had a very good attitude and I’m very proud home is never a bad result,” said Rodgers afterwards. reach the group phase, fell behind after just 12 minutes in of the players. We have been through a tough period and “If we win our home matches we can get out of the group, Germany as Pavel Mamaev converted a Fedor Smolov cross. there are many games left but this is a good start,” Deila said. we’ve done it before,” he added, referencing Liverpool’s 2012-13 But Matthias Ginter equalised for the hosts right before half- “Against Ajax we played well and created chances and Europa League campaign. time after heading in a cross from Park Joo-ho and the South defended as a team. For me it starts with a good attitude. “The Celtic also surrendered a late goal in Amsterdam after being Korean capped off his Dortmund debut in style with the winner boys showed me that they really want to fight. The confidence forced to play out the final 15 minutes a man down following the three minutes into second-half stoppage time. will come and we will get better and better. dismissal of Emilio Izaguirre. Elsewhere, Napoli thumped Club Brugge 5-0 in Group D as “I think everybody knows that we can play good football Israeli midfielder Nir Biton silenced the home crowd with an Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens scored twice apiece with and we are a good football team. But against Ajax we needed a eighth-minute opener before Viktor Fischer hauled Ajax level on Marek Hamsik also on target. good performance and we needed to get some confidence 25 minutes. Celtic then regained the upper hand three minutes Marseille made an encouraging start in Group F as they won from our performance. before the break as Mikael Lustig powered in a back-post header 3-0 away to Dutch side Groningen through goals from “The players have shown a great attitude and shown they from a corner. Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, Lucas Ocampos and Romain can bounce back. We now have to get ready for Sunday and But Honduran international Izaguirre was sent off for a sec- Alessandrini. start winning games in the league again as well.” —AFP