Immobile's record, Golovin's zeros and Horta's hat-trick from assists: what did the 4th round of the Europa League group stage stand for?

Lyon's confident gait

After the fourth round of the Europa League group stage, only one club ahead of schedule guaranteed itself the first place in its quartet - French Lyon.

In addition, the wards of Peter Bosch are the only ones who have not yet lost points at this stage, although on Thursday Sparta managed to impose competition on them.

The citizens of Prague looked at the Stade de Lumière with dignity and, having given up the initiative, organized quick counterattacks on occasion.

However, the guests only had enough strength for an hour.

Then the experienced forward of the hosts Islam Slimani reminded of himself.

Only three minutes was enough for the Algerian to make a double and break the opponent's resistance.

After that, he gave way on the field to Karl Toko-Ekambi, whom the coaching staff initially decided to keep.

But the Cameroonian did not leave the field without a goal this time either.

In stoppage time, he hit Florin Nice's goal and extended the streak in the tournament to four meetings.

The striker scored six times in them.

A successful substitution helped him to break out into the sole leaders of the LE scorers race.

Mahir Emreli (Legia), Kyogo Furuhashi (Celtic) and Enner Valencia (Fenerbahce) are now one goal behind him.

Friendly victories of Bayer and Eintracht

The game day was also successful for two German teams.

Bayer and Eintracht Frankfurt have won more victories.

The tour was especially bright for Leverkusen residents.

They took the strong "Betis", with which after the first round they shared the leadership in the Quartet G.

The fight in this confrontation unexpectedly did not work out.

It all started with the ball from Moussa Diaby, missed by the guests "into the locker room".

The Frenchman, having hit the opponent's gate, caught courage and in the second half made fun of his opponent.

The players did not have time to return to the field, as the winger scored a brace.

And in the end, the 22-year-old athlete gave assists to Nadim Amiri and Florian Wirtz.

It was much more difficult for Eintracht on Thursday.

Oliver Glasner's charges faced Olympiacos away and nearly lost points.

Already in the 12th minute, Youssef El-Arabi opened the scoring and scored the fourth goal in the tournament.

The guests quickly bounced back thanks to the accurate shot of Daichi Kamada.

However, it was not possible to break through Tomas Vaclik again, rather the champion of Greece could come out ahead.

In the end, everything was decided by the successful replacement of the German team.

Closer to the final whistle, the coaching staff threw into the battle Jens Høge, rented from Milan, and in the compensated time by the referee, the Norwegian scored and brought Eintracht a major victory.

Now the team from Frankfurt am Main will not fall below the second line and are guaranteed to play in the LE playoffs.

Rescue of "Marseille" and "Genk" in the ending

Meanwhile, Marseille and Lazio failed to take advantage of Galatasaray's misfire and did not close the gap with the leader of Quartet E. Their head-to-head confrontation ended in a draw again, only this time the rivals upset each other twice - 2: 2. The main heroes of the first half were the VAR referees, who made two key decisions at once: first, they prompted Jose Sanchez Martinez to assign a penalty to the guests for breaking the rules on Arkadiusz Milik, and in the fifth added minute, they advised him to cancel the offside that was wrongly recorded by Felipe Anderson, who equalized the score.

At the beginning of the second half, the Romans took the lead.

Ciro Immobile picked up the shell, taking advantage of a gross mistake by the defender, burst into the penalty area and shot straight into the far corner.

This goal was the 160th goal for the striker in the Lazio squad, allowing him to overtake Silvio Piola and come out on top in the list of the team's top scorers in history.

However, "Marseille" showed character and managed to escape.

In the 82nd minute, Dimitri Payet from close range finished off the ball into the net.

Moreover, in the time remaining before the final whistle, the hosts could snatch a victory, but they lacked a little luck.

However, the fourth draw in a row was an important result, which allowed the team not to let the competitor go into the lead.

The confrontation between Genk and West Ham in Group H developed according to a similar scenario. The Belgian team at the home arena also opened the scoring, with Joseph Paintsil scoring already in the fourth minute.

However, after the break, Mohamed Said Benrahma scored a double in the opponent's squad.

But, like Marseille, Genk escaped defeat in the end.

The hosts were unwittingly helped by Tomas Soucek, who scored his own goal.

So the hosts climbed to third place, and the Londoners lost their first points in the group stage of the tournament.

Braga's impressive statistics

And in group F there was a change of leader. Braga took advantage of the defeat of Crvena Zvezda by Midtjylland and, confidently beating Ludogorets at home (4: 2), came out on top. The champion of Bulgaria tried to take points from Portugal and even leveled the score in the 33rd minute, but allowed the opponent too much in the attack. The charges of Carlos Carvalyal have struck 26 shots, 11 of which were on target. If not for Kristian Kalina, who made seven saves, Razgrad could have lost much more.

The 27-year-old captain Ricardo Horta helped break the resistance of the Ludogorets.

The winger scored a hat-trick from assists in the first half, and it took him only 16 minutes.

If in the previous two meetings of the European Cup, the footballer scored goals, this time he assisted his partners and for the first time in his career gave three successful passes per game.

In total, in all tournaments this season, Horta has scored 12 points on the goal + pass system in 15 matches.

Dull game "Monaco"

With great interest, the fans were waiting for the confrontation between Monaco and PSV, but it was largely disappointing. In case of victory, the Monegasques would have guaranteed themselves a ticket to the playoffs of the LE, but were content with a goalless draw. Although they had more possession of the ball, they practically did not create dangerous moments and delivered only two shots on target of Yoel Drommel. The guests turned out to be a little more active, but also rarely bothered Alexander Nyubel.

After the break, Niko Kovacs released a number of leaders to replace in the hope of breaking the opposition.

Including Alexander Golovin entered the field.

The midfielder, who recently recovered from an injury, this time played a whole half and was remembered for a dangerous serve from the right flank, which was almost transformed into a goal by Djibril Sidibé.

And in the end the hosts claimed a penalty after Sophian Diop fell into someone else's penalty area, but Cuneyt Chakyr did not point out the “point”, and his colleagues at VAR agreed with his opinion.

Thus, in Group B, everyone remained with their friends because of the sensational misfire of Real Sociedad.

The Basques, leading in the Spanish championship, unexpectedly parted with the outsider Sturm - 1: 1.

Moreover, as part of the Austrian team, the ex-midfielder of the Moscow Dynamo Jakob Yantscher opened the scoring.