London, Sep 30 (IANS) English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur scored three goals in five minutes to come from behind to beat League of Ireland team Shamrock Rovers 3-1 and go top of Group A in the Europa Cup football league.
Stephen Rice scored against the run of play to put the Irish team ahead five minutes into the second-half, but within 10 minutes the Spurs levelled the scores when Roman Pavlyuchenko headed home.
Within six minutes, Jermaine Defoe and Giovani Dos Santos netted to take Spurs to a 3-1 victory and tie with Rubin Kazan, who drew 2-2 with Paok Salonika, on four points at the top of the group.
A goal 10 minutes from time by Giorgos Fotakis saw Paok Salonika to a 2-2 draw at Kazan. The Greek club took the lead midway through the first half through Stefanos Athanasiadis, but second-half goals by Nelson Haedo Valdez and Vladimir Dyadyun seemed to have put the Russians up only to find Fotakis’s late goal.
Another England club Stoke City also came from behind to beat Turkish giants Besiktas 2-1 Thursday as Peter Crouch cancelled out Roberto Hilbert’s opener before a late Jonathan Walters penalty gave them victory in Group E.
Juanfran’s late equaliser saved Atletico Madrid from another depressing defeat and a 1-1 draw at Rennes in Group I. The Spaniards stared defeat in the face when Victor Montano put Rennes ahead in the 56th minute before Juanfran struck with three minutes from time.
Udinese are alongside them on four points at the top of the group, as they, too, struggled for a 1-1 draw at Celtic.
Ryan Donk’s 90th-minute header gave Club Brugge a 2-1 victory at Braga. The Portuguese side dominated the first half and went ahead eight minutes into the second session through Helder Barbosa, but Joseph Akpala levelled in the 71st minute before Donk’s late goal saw them through.
In the other Group H game, Birmingham City came from behind to win 2-1 at Maribor.
Schalke’s Christian Fuchs struck in each half to give the German side a 3-1 win over Maccabi Haifa. In between Fuchs’ goals, Idan Vered had equalised, before Jose Jurado added a third.
Also in Group J, AEK Larnaca picked up their first point with a 1-1 draw against Steaua Bucharest. AEK took a 59th-minute lead through Miljan Mrdakovic before Mihai Costea Steaua equalised through Mihai Costea.
Mathias Suarez and Dieudonne Mbokani scored as Anderlecht continued their winning streak, beating Lokomotiv Moscow 2-0 in Group L.
In the other match in that group, Mario Haas was the injury-time match-winner for Sturm Graz as they found two late goals to win 2-1 against an AEK Athens who had played 10 men for most part of the second half.
In Group K, Marc Janko’s double helped FC Twente outclass Polish side Wisla Krakow 4-1 while Andrew Johnson scored twice to give Fulham a 2-0 win at Odense in another game in the same group.
