Europa League 2021/22 results: Matchday 2

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Another round of Europa League action is in the books, and as always, there were plenty of thrills and spills for fans to digest.

West Ham made it two wins from two with a composed victory over Rapid Wien, but there was no such success for the likes of Leicester, Rangers and Celtic.

Let’s dive into a roundup of the results.

It’s just one point from their opening two games for Leicester, whose hopes of qualification took a huge blow as they fell 1-0 to Legia Warsaw.

Brendan Rodgers made six changes for the game and you could tell, as Leicester looked horribly disjointed from start to finish. The Foxes struggled to create anything of note and never really looked like scoring.

Legia, however, could have had three or four, but they had to settle for Mahir Emreli’s first-half strike as their winning goal.

Read 90min’s player ratings for the game here.

Eljif Elmas needed just 11 seconds to give Napoli the lead against Spartak Moscow, but that wasn’t enough for the Partenopei as they ultimately fell to a 3-2 defeat.

A red card for Mario Rui midway through the first half turned the game on its head and Spartak bagged three second-half goals (and even picked up a red card of their own) to storm into an unassailable lead.

Victor Osimhen netted deep into stoppage time but the damage was already done.

Rangers‘ tricky run in Europe continued as they fell to a second consecutive defeat, this time at the hands of Czech side Sparta Prague.

A first-half header from David Hancko decided this one, with the Slovakian defender rising highest to send his effort into the back of the net via a flick off the post.

Unfortunately for Rangers, the damage was not done then as midfielder Glen Kamara was given his marching orders midway through the second half for receiving two yellow cards.

Another shaky defensive performance from Celtic saw them thumped 4-0 by German side Bayer Leverkusen.

Having shipped four against Real Betis last time out, Ange Postecoglou’s side were well and truly second best and could do nothing to prevent goals from Piero Hincapie, Florian Wirtz, Lucas Alario and Amine Adli.

Celtic did have their chances, most notably through Kyogo Furuhashi, but the gulf in quality was just too great.

It wasn’t one of the most entertaining matches you’ll ever see, but West Ham put in a professional showing as they kept Rapid Wien at arm’s length en route to a 2-0 victory.

David Moyes‘ side didn’t really get out of second gear but also did not need to, and Declan Rice’s sitter, which was put on a plate by the superhuman Michail Antonio, gave them a deserved lead midway through the second half.

Said Benrahma added a second in the dying embers of the game, ensuring West Ham’s 100% record in the Europa League remained intact.

Read 90min’s player ratings for the game here.

Antwerp 0-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Fenerbahce 0-3 Olympiacos
Legia Warsaw 1-0 Leicester
Lyon 3-0 Brondby
Napoli 2-3 Spartak Moscow
Real Sociedad 1-1 Monaco
Sparta Prague 1-0 Rangers
Sturm Graz 1-4 PSV Eindhoven
Braga 3-1 Midtjylland
Celtic 0-4 Bayer Leverkusen
Ferencvaros 1-3 Real Betis
Genk 0-3 Dinamo Zagreb
Lazio 2-0 Lokomotiv Moscow
Ludogorets 0-1 Crvena Zvezda
Marseille 0-0 Galatasaray
West Ham 2-0 Rapid Wien