Sean Dyche got off to a winning start as Nottingham Forest boss thanks to two penalties to beat Porto 2-0 in the Europa League, while Aston Villa were stunned 2-1 by Go Ahead Eagles on Thursday.
Forest, who sacked Ange Postecoglou after just 40 days and eight games in charge on Saturday, had not won in 10 games stretching back to the opening weekend of the Premier League season.
But Dyche, who began his playing career at the two-time European champions, roused an immediate impact, even if Forest needed some fortune from VAR interventions to get the better of the Portuguese giants.
Morgan Gibbs-White fired in from the spot on 19 minutes after Jan Bednarek had been penalised for handball.
“I can finally breathe tonight. It has been a difficult couple of months with all the changes and the bad performances,” said Gibbs-White.
“It feels a lot more positive and it needs to stay like that. That’s credit to the manager. He has instilled that in us, and we have to keep up that mentality.”
Former Southampton defender Bednarek thought he had equalised early in the second half, only for the goal to be ruled out after a VAR review for offside against Samu Aghehowa.
The video assistant referee also came to the home side’s aid when Nicola Savona was initially booked for diving, only for that decision to be overturned and a second penalty awarded 13 minutes from time.
Igor Jesus this time slammed home for his first Forest goal at the City Ground.
Villa boss Unai Emery said his side were taught a lesson in the difficulties of European football after their perfect Europa League start came to a surprise end in the Netherlands.
Emery’s men had backed up their status as pre-tournament favourites by beating Bologna and Feyenoord to get their European campaign off to a flying start.
The visitors started strongly when Evann Guessand fired in his first Villa goal.
However, in wild weather conditions, the home side secured a famous win in their first ever experience of group stage European football.
Mathis Suray’s deflected shot levelled before half-time and Mats Deijl dinked over Emiliano Martinez to give the Dutch Cup winners the lead.
Emi Buendia was Villa’s match-winner at Tottenham on Sunday, but the Argentine went from hero to villain as he missed a late penalty with the chance to snatch a draw.
“Today showed us how difficult it is to play in Europe, to play away,” said Emery.
“This is the reason I love football, because football has a lot of different ways to win. You can dominate, like we did, you have chances to score, but if we are conceding a few chances, maybe you can lose. And we did.”
Danny Rohl endured a nightmare start as Rangers manager in a humbling 3-0 defeat in Norway to Brann.
The Glasgow giants’ hopes of making the latter stages are in tatters after a third consecutive Europa League defeat left them bottom of the 36-team table.
A change of manager made no impact as Emil Kornvig converted at the back post to give Brann a half-time lead.
Jacob Sorensen punished more poor defending to head in from a free-kick before Noah Holm rubbed salt in Rangers wounds.
Celtic did salvage some pride for Scottish clubs by coming from behind to secure their first European win of the season over Sturm Graz.
Two goals in three minutes from Liam Scales and Benjamin Nygren earned a 2-1 victory after Tomi Horvat’s wonder strike put the Austrians in front at Celtic Park.
Danish side Midtjylland moved top of the standings with a 3-0 win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Lyon beat Basel 2-0 to continue their 100 percent record thanks to goals from Corentin Tolisso and Afonso Moreira.
Braga are the only other side so far with three wins from three after they beat Red Star Belgrade 2-0.
Bologna won 2-1 at Steaua Bucharest to register their first win in the league phase.
Fenerbahce beat Stuttgart 1-0, while Real Betis were held 0-0 away at Genk.
AFP
