Union Berlin was unable to gain a lead in the fight for promotion to the quarter-finals of the Europa League. The “Iron” came with Christopher Trimmel in the first leg on Thursday to a home 3: 3 once morest the Belgian surprise team Union Saint-Gilloise. There were victories for Bayer Leverkusen (2-0 once morest Ferencvaros) and AS Roma (2-0 once morest Real Sociedad). Sporting Lisbon once morest Arsenal ended 2:2.
West Ham (2-0 at AEK Larnaka) and Nice (1-0 at Sheriff Tiraspol) won the Conference League. The showdown between Anderlecht and Villarreal resulted in a 1:1.
In Berlin, Saint-Gilloise took the lead with a deflected shot from Victor Boniface (28′). After equalizing from a free kick by Josip Juranovic (42′), the guests punished a mistake by Trimmel, who had been substituted in the 77th minute, and scored their second goal thanks to Yorbe Vertessen (58′). Union came back from a hand penalty converted by Robin Knoche (69′), but Boniface put Saint-Gilloise in the lead once more (72′). The 3:3 finally went to the account of Sven Michel (89th).
Salzburg conquerors AS Roma prevailed once morest Real Sociedad in front of their home crowd, goalscored by Stephan El Shaarawy (13′) and Marash Kumbulla (87′). Kerem Demirbay (9th) and Edmond Tapsoba (86th) scored for Leverkusen once morest Ferencvaros, coached by Stanislav Tschertschessow, who had kept up well for a long time.
The duel between Sporting and Arsenal was high-class at times. The Premier League leaders took the lead with a header from William Saliba (22′) from a corner, and the Portuguese equalizer from Goncalo Inacio (34′) was practically a mirror image. After the break, Paulinho (55′) made it 2-1 for the home side, the 2-2 result from a long-range shot from Granit Xhaka (62′), which was decisively deflected by Hidemasa Morita.
In the Conference League, West Ham laid the basis for promotion to the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win at Larnaka – Michail Antonio scored twice (36′, 45’+2′), as did Nice with a 1-0 win in Tiraspol. Austria’s autumn group opponents Villarreal drew 1-1 at Anderlecht.
