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Eto’o scores brace for Anzhi amid Europa League upsets

Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o smiles during an interview following the launch of Puma's kits for nine African national soccer teams at the Design Museum in London November 7, 2011. REUTERS/Olivia Harris

By Brian Homewood

BERNE (Reuters) – Samuel Eto’o scored twice to give ambitious Anzhi Makhachkala a 2-0 Europa League win over Young Boys on Thursday while Videoton and Sparta Prague pulled off surprise wins.

Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o smiles during an interview following the launch of Puma’s kits for nine African national soccer teams at the Design Museum in London November 7, 2011. REUTERS/Olivia Harris

Eto’o, who last week ended his stand-off with Cameroon officials and agreed to play for his country again, converted a 62th minute penalty against the run of play.

He then turned in Oleg Shatov’s cross in the last minute to complete a 2-0 win over the Swiss side and extend Anzhi’s unbeaten run to seven matches in the competition, including the qualifiers.

The match was played in front of a sparse crowd in Moscow, where Anzhi are playing for security reasons after UEFA refused to let them stage matches in the violence-plagued Dagestan region.

Videoton gave Hungarian football a rare boost with a 3-0 win over Sporting, the goals coming in the first half from Paulo Vinicius, Filipe Oliveira and Nemanja Nikolic, while Sparta Prague beat last season’s runners-up Athletic Bilbao 3-1.

Inter Milan enjoyed an easy 3-1 win at Azerbaijan’s Neftci thanks to first-half goals from Philippe Coutinho, Joel Obi and Marko Livaja, all set up by Colombian Fredy Guarin.

Compatriots Lazio scraped a 1-0 win at home to Slovenia’s Maribor with a 62nd minute goal by Brazilian Ederson.

Former England manager Steve McClaren’s Twente Enschede narrowly avoided a shock defeat at Helsingborg after Rasmus Bengtsson and Douglas scored in the last quarter of an hour to give them a 2-2 draw.

Two goals from Nicola Djurdic had put the Swedes 2-0 ahead at halftime.

 

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