Juventus began their quest for Europa League glory with a 5-0 thrashing of NEC Nijmegen, while Bournemouth secured an impressive victory at Real Sociedad on their European debut on Thursday. Crystal Palace were 4-0 winners over Lech Poznan, but Celtic suffered another European embarassment as the Scottish champions were beaten 3-1 at home by Ferencvaros. Juventus expect to be competing among Europe’s elite in the Champions League, but the failure to qualify last season has at least allowed them the chance to end a 30-year wait for a continental trophy.
Blowing leads has been a repeat occurence for Marco Rose’s team in the early weeks of the season. Just weeks on from crashing out of the Champions League qualifiers to Austrian side LASK, despite at one point holding a four-goal lead, Celtic’s defensive flaws were exposed once more. The Italian giants were far too strong for their Dutch visitors in Turin as Nico Gonzalez, Kerim Alajbegovic and Nick Woltemade, with his first goal since joining on loan from Newcastle, made it 3-0 before half-time. Zeki Celik and Randal Kolo Muani rounded off the scoring after the break as Juventus made a better start than rivals AC Milan, who lost 2-0 to Benfica in the pick of Wednesday’s Europa League action. “It’s brilliant for the club and the 2,000 fans from Bournemouth.
“It’s a brilliant win in our first European game,” said Rose.
