Sensational Cisse Powers Milan to Victory as Leverkusen Thump Lech Poznan
Teenager Alphadjo Cisse became the youngest Italian to score a hat-trick in European club competition as he helped AC Milan to a thumping 4-0 victory over Austrian hosts RB Salzburg in the Europa League on Thursday.
Cisse's treble is also the first by a Milan player in a continental fixture since Filippo Inzaghi 24 years ago as the Italians overcame an opening-round home loss to Benfica to claim an emphatic away win, despite finishing the game with 10 men.
The 19-year-old scored all his goals inside 49 minutes to underline the faith shown in him by coach Ruben Amorim.
"He owes me nothing," Amorim said. "He deserves the playing time he's getting because of what he's doing. He knows how to be explosive. He has a lot of heart, but he can still improve in training and in matches.
"Tonight he deserves all the praise, but there are things he needs to work on, and he has enormous potential."
Milan lost Filippo Terracciano to a straight red card late in the game for a professional foul.
Bayer Leverkusen made it two wins from two as they thumped Lech Poznan 4-0 in Poland with a pair of Patrik Schick penalties helping them along the way.
Olympique Lyonnais edged Crystal Palace 3-2 in a battle between two clubs who were previously both controlled by American businessman John Textor.
Both teams qualified for the competition last season, but Palace were demoted to the Conference League as a result of Textor’s shareholding, which was perhaps a blessing in disguise as they went on to win that competition.
Pavel Sulc scored Lyon’s third goal to put them 3-1 up, but Palace battled back as Daichi Kamada’s goal eight minutes from the end set up a nervous finish for the home side.
The Brazilian pair of Evanilson and Rayan were among the goals as Bournemouth eased to a 3-0 home win over Sturm Graz of Austria in their first-ever home European tie, while Sunderland came from behind to secure a 2-1 win at Portuguese side Torreense with Noah Sadiki netting the winner in the 93rd minute.
The English duo are two of 10 teams with a full haul of six points from the opening two rounds.
Benfica thumped Scottish side Celtic 4-1 with Jhon Duran scoring a brace, while Randal Kolo Muani netted a late winner as Juventus edged Celta Vigo 2-1 in Spain to top the standings.
Olympique de Marseille’s poor start to their European campaign continued as they remain pointless following a 1-0 home loss to Olympiacos Piraeus.
Dispersed Olympic Games to Become Increasingly Common, Says USOPC CEO Hirshland
Geographically dispersed Games are well on their way to becoming the norm, USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said on Thursday, as the growing scale of the Olympics complicates infrastructure plans for hosts.
IOC officials hailed the most recent Milano Cortina Games as a success, despite early concerns over the first spread-out Winter Olympics that had venues scattered over 22,000 kilometers.
The upcoming LA28 Games are also expected to be spread out, with softball and canoe slalom set to take place in Oklahoma City and soccer to be in several metropolitan areas: New York City; Columbus, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; St. Louis; San Jose, California; and San Diego.
"The disbursement of the Games themselves is evolving. And a lot of that is because the scale of the Games has gotten so big and significant that the infrastructure required to host is very hard to find in a single place," said Hirshland, who was speaking from the Columbia University Sports Management Conference.
The 2030 Games in the French Alps are expected to follow the Milano Cortina model, with venues in Nice and the Alpine regions. New York state this year formed an exploratory committee to host the 2042 Winter Games, with the duties to be shared between the five boroughs and Lake Placid.
By comparison, the centralized plan for Utah 2034's venues will serve as a "rare exception," said Hirshland.
"It is likely that the LA 2028 Games will be the largest summer Games ever," she said.
"My guess is that the summer Games thereon after will probably be smaller than what we're going to see in LA. And a lot of that is infrastructure demand, cost demand, and to some degree there is a point at which even the logistics get so cumbersome that you can't continue to grow unless you really rethink the way you do it."
Brighton Cruise in Conference League as Monaco Win, Ajax Lose
Brighton coasted to a 4-0 win over Lithuanian opponents Kauno Zalgiris to launch their UEFA Conference League bid Thursday, while Ligue 1 leaders Monaco earned a 2-1 victory at CSKA Sofia.
Georginio Rutter slotted in a cutback from Ibrahim Osman as Brighton took the lead late in the first half at the Amex, with the goal awarded after a VAR review as the Ghanaian just managed to keep the ball in play.
Rutter turned provider for Jack Hinshelwood as Brighton struck again on the stroke of half-time before the Frenchman netted his second of the night on 53 minutes.
Matt O'Riley headed in his first goal in over a year to complete the rout and the Seagulls extended their winning run in all competitions to five matches.
"I'm very happy to have two goals today, but more importantly is the three points. We are very happy to start the competition like this, we have a good side, we are in good shape at the moment, so we have to keep going," Rutter told TNT Sports.
Only Barcelona and Bayern Munich have scored more than Brighton's 29 goals among clubs in Europe's biggest leagues this season.
"It's not every time one player. We are a good team, everybody scores and everybody assists so I think the atmosphere of the team at the moment is very good," said Rutter.
Brighton beat Norwegian side Tromso 4-0 in the play-off round in August to reach the league phase. Their only past taste of European football came when they reached the last 16 of the 2023-24 Europa League.
