Spanish cracks Valencia CF arrive in Munich for Wednesday’s opening round of Champions League Group F fixtures on the back of a first domestic league win of the season. Mauricio Pellegrino’s men struggled at times on Saturday evening but improved significantly after the break to delight their home fans with a 2-1 victory over promoted Celta Vigo.
A 36,000 crowd at the Mestalla saw Sofiane Feghouli open the scoring with just four minutes on the clock, but Denmark striker Michael Krohn-Dehli levelled for the Galician visitors 12 minutes later. Defender Aly Cissokho, who has one cap for France to his name, restored the lead after 50 minutes, and Los Che protected the advantage through to the end to seal three precious points. Valencia are now up to eighth in the La Liga standings on five points from four matches so far.
Borisov retain lead in Belarus
BATE Borisov open their Champions League campaign away to Lille on Wednesday as leaders in their domestic league. On Saturday, coach Viktor Goncharenko’s men did the necessary and overcame third-to-last Torpedo Schodsina at home, Aleksandr Pavlov (66) and Marko Simic (76) scoring the goals in a 2-0 victory. With 24 games played, the men from Borisov retain a one-point lead at the top of the standings.
Lille miss out on second win
French contenders OSC Lille were denied a second win of the Ligue 1 season by conceding a late equaliser away to ES Troyes AC on Saturday. Les Doges led until the 88th minute, but sub Sébastien Grax struck to salvage a point for the promoted side. Dimitri Payet opened for Lille on 38 minutes. Lille now have six points and moved up the table by a place to tenth, although the fifth round of matches is not completed until Sunday.
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