Lille’s Yusuf Yazici brought AC Milan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic down to earth with a bump on Thursday night with all three goals in a 3-0 Europa League win over the seven-time European champions.
The 39-year-old Ibrahimovic had been one of the stories of the early part of the season after firing seven goals in four league games to take the Italian giants top of Serie A, but it was Yazici, who is yet to start in Ligue 1 this season, who stole the show with his hat-trick at the San Siro.
Yazici’s goals put Lille, who are unbeaten in all competitions this season, one point ahead of Milan who lost for the first time since football returned from the first coronavirus lockdown. Celtic are bottom of Group H after being hammered 4-1 at home by Sparta Prague. “I thought we could be more dangerous, but against such a fast team once we went 2-0 behind the game got complicated. They punished us for every mistake,” said Milan coach Stefano Pioli after his side’s 24-match unbeaten run came to an end. “(Ibrahimovic) was not satisfied with the team’s performance nor his own.”
Yazici, 23, opened the scoring when he won and scored a soft-looking penalty in the 22nd minute. He doubled the away side’s lead nine minutes after the break when his hopeful strike bobbled over Gianluigi Donnarumma’s early dive and then twisted the knife three minutes later when he confidently finished a counter attack. Incredibly it was Yazici’s second Europa League hat-trick of the season following his treble in Lille’s 4-1 win over Sparta Prague in the opening round of fixtures, taking his European tally to six.
Kelechi Iheanacho was the star for Leicester City as they made it three wins from three with their 4-0 thumping of Portuguese side Braga in a match that was never in doubt from the moment the Nigerian opened the scoring in the 21st minute. Brendan Rodgers’s side went three points ahead of Braga at the top of Group G.
Fellow Premier League side Arsenal also maintained their 100 % record with a 4-1 win over Molde of Norway. Earlier Harry Kane scored his 200th goal for Tottenham Hotspur as he helped fire Spurs top of Group J — level on six points with Royal Antwerp and LASK — with a 3-1 win at Ludogorets. England captain Kane opened the scoring for Jose Mourinho’s side with just 12 minutes on the clock when he headed home Lucas Moura’s corner to bring up his double century of Tottenham goals in his 300th match for the club.
Rangers were poised to make it three wins from three in Group D when they were 3-1 ahead at Benfica with 14 minutes remaining. But despite losing Nicolas Otamendi to a straight red card with less than 20 minutes gone, two-time European champions Benfica fought back and in added time levelled when Darwin Nunez raced through and slotted home past Allan McGregor.
The pair are joined on seven points at the top of the group, four ahead of Lech Poznan who beat bottom side Standard Liege 3-1.
Roma took control of Group A with a thumping 5-0 win over Cluj that put the leaders three points clear of the Romanians and Young Boys. Fellow Italians Napoli also won, 2-1 at HNK Rijeka, to move level on six points with Group F leaders AZ Alkmaar and Real Sociedad. La Liga leaders Sociedad beat Alkmaar 1-0, leaving the group on a knife edge with three matches remaining.

Europa League results
Group A: Roma (ITA) 5 (Mkhitaryan 2, Ibanez 24, Mayoral 34, 84, Pedro 89) CFR Cluj (ROM) 0; Young Boys (SUI) 3 (Mambimbi 2, 32, Sulejmani 18) CSKA Sofia (BUL) 0
Group B: Rapid Vienna (AUT) 4 (Ljubicic 22, Arase 79, Hofmann 87, Demir 90+1) Dundalk (IRL) 3 (Hoban 7, McMillian 81, 90+6-pen); Arsenal (ENG) 4 (Haugen 45+1-og, Sinyan 62-og, Pepe 69, Willock 88) Molde (NOR) 1 (Ellingsen 21)
Group C: Slavia Prague (CZE) 3 (Kuchta 16, 71, Sima 43) Nice (FRA) 2 (Gouiri 33, Ndoye 90+3); Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR) 2 (Acolatse 11, 25) Bayer Leverkusen (GER) 4 (Bailey 5, 75, Dadya 39-og, Wirtz 88)
Group D: Benfica (POR) 3 (Goldson 2-og, Silva 77, Nunez 90+1) Rangers (SCO) 3 (Goncalves 24-og, Kamara 35, Morelos 51); Lech Poznan (POL) 3 (Skoras 14, Ishak 22, 48) Standard Liege (BEL) 1 (Lestienne 29)
Group E: PAOK (GRE) 4 (Schwab 47, Zivkovic 56, 66, Tzolis 58) PSV Eindhoven (NED) 1 (Zahavi 21-pen); Omonoia Nicosia (CYP) 0 Granada (ESP) 2 (Herrera 4, Suarez Charris 64)
Group F: Real Sociedad (ESP) 1 (Portu 58) AZ Alkmaar (NED) 0; Rijeka (CRO) 1 (Muric 13) Napoli (ITA) 2 (Demme 43, Braut 62-og)
Group G: Zorya Luhansk (UKR) 1 (Kochergin 81) AEK Athens (GRE) 4 (Tankovic 7, Mantalos 34, Livaja 54, 81); Leicester (ENG) 4 (Iheanacho 21, 48, Praet 67, Maddison 78) Braga (POR) 0
Group H: AC Milan (ITA) 0 Lille (FRA) 3 (Yazici 22-pen, 55, 58); Celtic (SCO) 1 (Griffiths 65) Sparta Prague (CZE) 4 (Julis 26, 45, 77, Krejci 90)
Group I: Villarreal (ESP) 4 (Bacca 4, 52, Alex Baena 71, Nino 81) Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR) 0; Sivasspor (TUR) 2 (Osmanpasa 11, Kayode 88) Qarabag (AZE) 0: 
Group J: Ludogorets (BUL) 1 (Keseru 50) Tottenham (ENG) 3 (Kane 13, Lucas 33, Lo Celso 62); Antwerp (BEL) 0 LASK Linz (AUT) 1 (Eggestein 55)
Group K: Feyenoord (NED) 3 (Haps 63, Kokcu 71, Geertruida 72) CSKA Moscow (RUS) 1 (Senesi 80-og); Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) 1 (Atiemwen 76) Wolfsberg (AUT) 0
Group L: Red Star Belgrade (SRB) 2 (Kanga 12 Katai 59) Gent (BEL) 1 (Odjidja-Ofoe 31); Hoffenheim (GER) 5 (Dabbur 22, 30 Grillitsch 59, Adamyan 71, 76) Slovan Liberec (CZE) 0