Europa League Roundup: Arsenal Victorious as Athletic Bilbao & Marseille Fall to Defeat

Matchday two in the Europa League was typically eventful on Thursday evening, with two English clubs in action as well as some other big names on the continent.

Arsene Wenger deployed a youthful lineup in Belarus as Arsenal won 4-2 against BATE Borisov - check here for the report in full - whose last European home defeat was to Barcelona in the Champions League two years ago.

Academy graduates Joe Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson were included in a match that saw Jack Wilshere excel, Theo Walcott bag a brace and Olivier Giroud notch his hundredth goal for the club.

Elsewhere, former Manchester City striker Felipe Caicedo was on target along with Ciro Immobile in Rome, as Lazio edged out Belgian outfit Zulte-Waregrem 2-0 in Group K, while Nice were the other winners with Alassane Plea at the double in a 3-0 success over Vitesse Arnhem.

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It was a good night for 2008 UEFA Cup champions Zenit St. Petersburg, asthey powered past Real Sociedad 3-1 in Russia with Aleksandr Kokorin scoring twice and former Chelsea favourite Branislav Ivanovic featuring in their lineup.

By contrast, Athletic Bilbao suffered the ignominy of a 1-0 home reverse to Ukrainians Zorya Luhansk with Aritz Aduriz, Inaki Williams and the rest floundering as the Basque team failed to score at home in Europe for the first time since 2014.  

Marseille were also on the end of an embarrassing defeat as they went down 1-0 away to Red Bull Salzburg.

Here are the rest of tonight's results so far:

More to follow later this evening, with both Everton and AC Milan among the teams in action.