Olympique de Marseille avenged their heavy Ligue 1 defeat at the weekend with a superb 5-1 victory over AEL Limassol at Stade Velodrome.
Surprisingly, it was the Cypriot minnows who scored first, with Edwin Ouon providing the finish after some lax defending from a corner. Joey Barton’s home debut saw the Englishman’s corner helped on by debutant Lucas Mendes, with Rod Fanni heading in to make it 1-1.
The hosts then were in the ascendancy, with Mendes notching a debut goal with a fine header, before Loic Remy made it 3-1 midway through the second half.
Substitute Andre-Pierre Gignac made it 4-1, with Remy completing the rout just seconds later – both in the 90th minute to hand Elie Baup’s men top spot in Group A.
Fenerbahce turned on the style to demolish Borussia Monchengladbach 4-2 during an intriguing encounter at Borussia-Park.
It would be Lucien Favre’s side who took the lead early on, as Havard Nordveit’s pin-point delivery was headed in by Luuk de Jong, as the Turkish giants failed to adequately impose their authority early on.
However, it would be all Fenerbahce from there, as the visitors replied. Firstly, a brilliant free-kick from Cristian deceived Marc-Andre ter Stegen for the equaliser, before Raul Meireles latched onto a delivery by Canet Erkin, to smash home a low shot to turn the match around.
Dirk Kuyt made it 3-1 in the second half, turning in from Erkin’s cross after a surging run from the midfielder, though Ivan de Camargo reduced the deficit back to 3-2 from Juan Arango’s delivery.
Nonetheless, it would be Fener’s night as Cristian struck his second to complete the 4-2 scoreline late on, to hand Aykut Kocaman’s side a huge win.