HAPOEL BE’ER SHEVA, the Israeli side that came close to knocking Celtic out of the Champions League in the playoffs, earned an impressive 2-0 victory away to Inter tonight on the opening night in the Europa League.

Austin stars for Saints

Elsewhere, Claude Puel got his first victory as Southampton manager as the Premier League side eased to a 3-0 home victory over Sparta Prague at St Mary’s Stadium in Group K.

The Frenchman was left fuming at the weekend whenSouthampton lost to a harsh injury-time penalty at Arsenal.

The boot was on the other foot this time when Costa was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball in the box when it struck his hand.

Charlie Austin tucked away the spot-kick after just five minutes and then the striker headed in from a delicious outside-of-the boot cross from Cuco Martina to give the Saints a 2-0 half-time lead.

Southampton easily held on in a drab second half and substitute Jay Rodriguez — on for Austin — stabbed home in injury time to seal a comfortable night’s work.

Dream start for Sassuolo

In addition, both Roma and Fiorentina drew on the road, it was a great night for another Italian side. Sassuolo, appearing in Europe for the first time, started their Group F campaign with a rousing 3-0 home win against 2012 Europa League runners-up Athletic Bilbao.

Teenage Spaniard Pol Lirola put Sassuolo ahead on the hour mark and they did not look back, Gregoire Defrel making it two on 75 minutes before Matteo Politano sealed the win.

Europa League group stage results on Thursday:

Group A

Feyenoord (NED) 1 (Vilhena 79) Manchester United (ENG) 0

Zorya Luhansk (UKR) 1 (Grechyshkin 52) Fenerbahce (TUR) 1 (Kjaer 90+5)

Group B

BSC Young Boys (SUI) 0 Olympiakos (GRE) 1 (Cambiasso 42)

APOEL (CYP) 2 (Vinicius 75, De Camargo 87) Astana (KAZ) 1 (Maksimovic 45+1)

Group C

FSV Mainz 05 (GER) 1 (Bungert 57) Saint-Etienne (FRA) 1 (Beric 88)

Anderlecht (BEL) 3 (Teodorczyk 14, Rafael 41-og, Capel 77) Qabala (AZE) 1 (Dabo 20)

Group D

AZ Alkmaar (NED) 1 (Stijn Wuytens 61) Dundalk (IRL) 1 (Kilduff 89)

Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR) 3 (Medunjanin 26, 70, Kjartansson 50) Zenit St Petersburg (RUS) 4 (Kokorin 77, Mauricio 84, Giuliano 86, Djordjevic 90+2)

Group E

Astra Giurgiu (ROU) 2 (Alibec 18, Sapunaru 74) Austria Vienna (AUT) 3 (Holzhauser 16-pen, Friesenbichler 33, Alexander Gruenwald 58)

Viktoria Plzen (CZE) 1 (Bakos 11) Roma (ITA) 1 (Perotti 4-pen)

Group F

Sassuolo (ITA) 3 (Lirola 60, Defrel 75, Politano 82) Athletic Bilbao (ESP) 0

Rapid Vienna (AUT) 3 (Schwab 51, Joelinton 59, Colley 60-og) Genk (BEL) 2 (Bailey 29, 90-pen)

Group G

Panathinaikos (GRE) 1 (Berg 5) Ajax (NED) 2 (Traore 34, Riedewald 67)

Standard Liege (BEL) 1 (Dossevi 3) Celta Vigo (ESP) 1 (Rossi 13)

Group H

Konyaspor (TUR) 0 Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) 1 (Ferreyra 76)

Sporting Braga (ESP) 1 (Andre Pinto 24) Gent (BEL) 1 (Milicevic 6)

Group I

FC Salzburg (AUT) 0 FK Krasnodar (RUS) 1 (Joaozinho 37)

Nice (FRA) 0 Schalke (GER) 1 (Baba Rahman 75)

Group J

Qarabag (AZE) 2 (Michel 7, Sadygov 90+4) Liberec (CZE) 2 (Sykora 1, Baros 68)

PAOK (GRE) 0 Fiorentina (ITA) 0

Group K

Inter Milan (ITA) 0 Hapoel Be’er Sheva (ISR) 2 (Miguel Vitor 54, Buzaglo 69)

Southampton (ENG) 3 (Austin 5-pen, 27, Rodriguez 90+2) Sparta Prague (CZE) 0

Group L

Osmanlispor (TUR) 2 (Diabate 64-pen, Umar 74) Steaua Bucharest (ROU) 0

Villarreal (ESP) 2 (Pato 28, Jonathan dos Santos 45+1) FC Zurich (SUI) 1 (Sadiku 2)

(C) AFP 2016

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