English teams sum up good Euro night

A Nick Powell double and Ben Watson’s first-half strike gave the Latics a maiden win in European football despite the FC Maribor threatening a second half comeback. The Manchester United loanee scored on either side of the half gave Wigan a hugely deserved win.

Wayne Routledge’s close-range finish after 52 minutes was enough to give Michael Laudrup’s Swansea back-to-back wins in Europe. Swansea City went three points clear Group A with a 1-0 win against Swiss side St Gallen in the Europa League.

Tottenham’s encouraging start to the season continued unchecked as Andre Villas-Boas’ post-Gareth Bale era side made it two out of two in the Europa League on Thursday.  Spurs shrugged off hostile weather conditions in Russia to deny Anzhi Makhachkala 2-0 and tighten their grip on Group K, going four points clear.  Jermain Defoe celebrated his call-up to the England squad earlier in the day for this month’s final batch of World Cup qualifiers with the first goal.

Set up by Lewis Holtby he struck from inside the box after the half hour mark, rifling the ball into the roof of the net. That left the striker one goal shy of Martin Chivers’ European club record tally of 24.
In other early Europa League action Valencia picked themselves up from their opening loss to Swansea with a 2-0 Group A win at Kuban Krasnodar. Italian side Florentina edged Dnipro 2-1 in Ukraine’s tough conditions. PSV Eindhoven beat Chornomor 2-0 away to get vital three points.