Europa League round-up: Holders Atletico suffer opening defeat

HOLDERS Atletico Madrid suffered a losing start to the defence of their Europa League crown last night after slumping to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Aris Thessaloniki.

Spaniard Javito struck a brilliant winner midway through the second half for the Greek side, who kept their unbeaten European home record intact and burst Atletico's early-season bubble.

A hat-trick from Patrick Helmes and one from Stefan Reinartz saw Bayer Leverkusen beat Rosenborg 4-0 in the other Group B game.

Lech Poznan striker Artjoms Rudnevs scored the third goal of his hat-trick in injury-time to stun Juventus and claim a memorable 3-3 away draw to open the Polish champions' Group A campaign.

Juve had overcome a two-goal deficit as veteran striker Alessandro Del Piero, who twice set up Giorgio Chiellini either side of half-time to draw his side level, then fired them ahead with a marvellous long-range strike. But that goal was bettered in injury time when Rudnevs blasted his third from 35 yards to complete his hat-trick.

Ante Rukavina and Jorge Sammir got the goals as Dinamo Zagreb claimed an impressive 2-0 win over Villarreal, who had Marcos Senna sent off, while also in Group D Club Brugge drew 1-1 with PAOK.

Lille continued a largely disappointing week for French teams in Europe, losing 2-1 at home to Sporting Lisbon, with Pierre-Alain Frau's goal all they could muster after Simon Vukcevic and Helder Postiga had put the visitors 2-0 up, while Levski Sofia twice came from behind to beat Gent 3-2 in the other Group C match.

In Group F, Palermo's disappointing start to the season continued as they lost 3-2 at Sparta Prague and CSKA Moscow won 3-0 at Lausanne, while AZ Alkmaar took the early advantage in Group E, beating FC Sheriff 2-1 as Dynamo Kiev and BATE Borisov drew 2-2.