UEL roundup: Spain struggles continue

Spanish club’s miserable week in Europe was completed on Thursday night as Celta Vigo and Villarreal crashed to damaging home defeats.

Two clubs from Spain have lost by four or more goals in Europe for the first time since 1955 as the Yellow Submarine suffered a crushing 4-0 defeat at home to a rampant Roma, two days after Barcelona went down by the same score-line at Paris Saint-Germain.

A first-half Emerson strike opened the scoring for the Serie A giants before Edin Dzeko netted a second-half treble – the first hat-trick by a visiting player at Villarreal since Patrick Kluivert for Barcelona in 2001, while the club had not conceded four or more at El Madrigal since 2010.

A 27th-minute Gustavo Blanco strike ensured it’ll be an uphill struggle for Celta to progress through to the last sixteen as they slumped to a 1-0 home defeat to Shakhtar Donestk – last season’s beaten semi-finalists.

Athletic Bilbao did manage a slender victory at home to APOEL, but the tie now hangs in the balance as the Cypriot giants netted a late second away goal.

Georgios Efrem gave the visitors a shock lead but it was cancelled out by Giorgos Merkis’ own goal two minutes later, but second half strikes from Aritz Aduriz and Inaki Williams seemed to put the Basques in total control before Giannis Gianniotas grabbed a potentially vital last minute goal back.

Tags APOEL Roma Shakhtar Donestk
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