Juventus hammer Njimigen as keeper suffers Europa League nightmare

MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP

Juventus hammered Dutch side NEC Nijmegen 5-0 at home with help from two errors by goalkeeper Nikolas Polster and Olympique de Marseille of France lost 4-1 away to Besiktas as the first round of Europa League matches wrapped up on Thursday.

The first howler from Nijmegen 's Polster allowed Nicolas Gonzalez to nip in ahead of him and steal the ball to give Juve the lead in the ninth minute. A goal from Kerim Alajbegovic and a penalty from Nick Woltemade sent them in 3-0 up at the break.

Zeki Celik made it 4-0 in the 75th minute before Polster again came out of his goal and failed to clear the ball, and this time it was Randal Kolo Muani who rolled it into the empty net to complete the rout.

Marseille's disastrous start to the season continued as they followed up three straight defeats in Ligue 1 with a comprehensive beating at the hands of Besiktas, with the Turkish side scoring three goals without reply in the second half en route to victory.

Scottish champions Celtic also suffered an embarrassing defeat as Ferencvaros of Hungary coasted to an easy 3-1 away win, while in London Crystal Palace scored three times in the first half as the Premier League side cruised to a 3-0 win over Lech Poznan of Poland.

Fellow English side Bournemouth grabbed a 2-1 win away to Real Sociedad in Spain, while Norwegian side Lillestrom fell to a 2-1 loss at home in their first game in the competition's group stage to Portugal's Torreense, who had Nuha Jatta sent off for picking up a second yellow card late on.

Earlier in the evening, Greek side OFI Crete beat Germany's Hoffenheim 2-0 at home, while RB Salzburg picked up a 1-0 win away to Levski Sofia in Bulgaria.

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