Diego Maradona's Gimnasia La Plata earned a 1-1 draw at Banfield in the Argentinian Superliga on Friday despite playing for more than an hour with just 10 men.
Eric Ramirez put Gimnasia ahead from close range in the 13th minute but the visitors suffered a double blow shortly after Nelson Insfran brought down Reinaldo Lenis, earning the goalkeeper a second yellow card.
Jesus Datolo tucked away the resultant spot-kick but the hosts failed to capitalize on their extra player as Gimnasia held on to secure a point.
The result left Maradona's outfit 22nd in the 24-team standings with three wins, two draws and 10 losses. Banfield remained 17th, six points above Gimnasia.
Maradona, 59, took charge of Gimnasia in September when they were last in the standings with just one draw from five matches. The 1986 World Cup winner has led the team to three wins and a draw in their past seven matches.
In Friday's only other Superliga fixture, Defensa drew 1-1 away to defending champions Racing Club.
On Saturday, league leaders Boca Juniors will host second-placed Argentinos Juniors at La Bombonera.
Daichi Kamada scored twice in the second half as Eintracht Frankfurt came from a goal down and stun Arsenal 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday.
The loss at Emirates Stadium extended Arsenal's winless streak to seven games across all competitions — its worst run since 1992 — increasing the pressure on coach Unai Emery after a series of disappointing results.
Kamada leveled the score 10 minutes into the second half with a low shot inside the far post as Frankfurt was pushing for an equalizer. After Arsenal failed to clear a corner nine minutes later, he found the back of the net from the edge of the area.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gave Arsenal the lead in the first-half stoppage time after Gabriel Martinelli sent a low cross for the striker to score with a shot that was deflected against the crossbar before going in.
Eintracht cut Arsenal's lead atop Group F to a point, with Standard Liege three points back after drawing 1-1 with Vitoria.
Newcomer Wolverhampton Wanderers and Braga both progressed with a game in hand after the two sides drew 3-3.
Wolfsburg, Gent, Alkmaar, Sporting, LASK and APOEL also all secured a spot in the next round.
Borussia Mönchengladbach and Roma closed in on advancement after away wins while Lazio remained in contention.
Manchester United had already qualified and could afford to field a youthful team against Astana, which came from behind to win 2-1 after benefiting from an own goal in the second half.
Here's a look at Thursday's games:
YOUTHFUL UNITED
United defender Di'Shon Bernard, one of three teenagers who made their senior debut for the English team, deflected a shot by Antonio Rukavina into his own net in the 62nd for what proved to be the winning goal in Astana.
It was the first loss of the Europa League campaign for United, which had already secured a spot in the knockout stage and leads Group L with 10 points.
Astana is last despite earning its first three points.
Jesse Lingard marked his first game as United captain with a low shot from outside the area for his first goal of the season 10 minutes into the game, which was played on an artificial surface.
Dmitri Shomko equalized for Astana in the 55th, the first goal United had conceded in the campaign, just seconds after another teenager, Tahith Chong, failed to hit an open net from close range at the other end.
Ethan Laird and Dylan Levitt also made their first start in a United team that had an average age of 21.6 years, including 36-year-old goalkeeper Lee Grant.
WOLVES THROUGH
Wolves was 1-0 down in the sixth minute, then led 3-1 just 30 minutes later amid heavy rain — only to allow a comeback in the second half but stormed back still in the first half. Raul Jimenez, Matt Doherty and Adama Traore scored for Wolves, before second-half goals from Paulinho and Fransérgio salvaged a draw for the hosts.
INTO NEXT ROUND
A goalless draw at Saint-Etienne was enough for Gent to advance from Group I. Wolfsburg joins the Belgian club after a 1-0 win at Oleksandriya.
AZ Alkmaar was held to a 2-2 home draw by Partizan, a result that still sent the Dutch team through to the next stage from Group L together with Man United.
APOEL won 2-0 at Dudelange to make the next stage as runner-up in Group A. Sevilla had already clinched first place and maintained its perfect record with a 2-0 win over Qarabag.
Sporting beat PSV Eindhoven to also clinch a berth in the next round from Group D, with LASK also advancing after a 2-1 win at Rosenborg.
OTHER GROUPS
Krasnodar boosted its hopes of advancing from Group C by beating already qualified Basel 1-0. The Russian side is tied for second on nine points with Getafe, which won 1-0 at Trabzonspor.
Borussia Mönchengladbach is tied atop Group J with Roma on eight points. The Bundesliga leader won 1-0 at Wolfsberg while Roma beat Istanbul Basaksehir 3-0.
In a tightly contested Group G, Rangers drew 2-2 at Feyenoord to keep first place with eight points. Porto beat Young Boys 2-1 to put both teams on seven points.
Lazio beat Cluj 1-0 to keep its chances of advancing from Group E alive.
One required some tough love. The other needed a new coach and his fresh set of ideas.
It took a while for Christian Pulisic and Mateo Kovacic to establish themselves at Chelsea, prompting doubts about the wisdom of their recent big-money arrivals.
Now they're in the team, there appears to be little chance of them leaving it.
Pulisic is the 21-year-old American winger who joined from Borussia Dortmund in the offseason as a marquee $73 million signing but didn't start a match of any significance for Chelsea in September or nearly all of October. Quite simply, Frank Lampard did not think Pulisic was showing enough in training — quite a damning assessment for a young player in a new country to digest.
Somewhat out of the blue, Pulisic was recalled for a seemingly awkward-looking English Premier League match at Burnley on Oct. 26, he scored a "perfect" hat trick — featuring goals with his left foot, right foot, head — and hasn't looked back. His goal against Valencia in the 2-2 draw in the Champions League on Wednesday continued his rich vein of scoring form, with six goals in Chelsea's last seven games, all of which he has started.
Kovacic is the box-to-box central midfielder from Croatia who also arrived at the club on a permanent basis in the offseason, after an underwhelming loan spell in the 2018-19 campaign under Chelsea's former coach, Mauricio Sarri.
Many would have questioned why Chelsea spent a reported 40 million pounds on a player who delivered few performances of note last season, but he has grown in stature since Lampard took charge.
Over the past month, he has been Chelsea's best player; his energy, ball circulation and pressing standing out and diminishing the impact of the recent absence of star midfielder N'Golo Kante. To top it off, Kovacic marked his 71st appearance for Chelsea with his first goal for the club against Valencia this week.
"It's a project for me, for him, and for the whole staff, to get him more goals," Lampard said about Kovacic.
In truth, it's the only thing missing in his armory at the moment.
With Pulisic and Kovacic making themselves virtually undroppable at the moment, Lampard has a headache — albeit one he is probably happy to have.
Suddenly, Callum Hudson-Odoi — regarded by some as the brightest young talent at Chelsea, perhaps even in English soccer — cannot get a start, since he is a rival of Pulisic for the left-wing berth.
Then, in midfield, who of Kante, Kovacic, and Jorginho does Lampard drop now all three are fit and available? Does he even have to drop any of them?
There isn't a genuine playmaker in that trio — Mason Mount is a more attacking, creative central-midfield option in the squad — but Lampard has gone with the hard-working Kovacic-Jorginho-Kante axis for two tough away games over the past week, at Manchester City and Valencia.
For home games against weaker opposition, such as for example out-of-form West Ham in the league on Saturday, Lampard will likely play Mount to give the team some more vision from deep.
It will be tough on Kovacic if he loses his place, perhaps knocking his confidence now he is playing the best football of his career. He attributes his improvement in form to Lampard giving him more freedom to take the ball forward and influence play, compared to what he was asked to do by Sarri, and to feeling more at home at Chelsea now he is no longer a loanee.
Similarly, can Lampard even countenance dropping Pulisic despite Chelsea, and every other Premier League team, facing three games in the space of seven or eight days starting on Saturday?
According to the league's official statistics supplier, Opta, Pulisic has scored as many goals in his last seven club games as he managed in the previous 36, which takes in the end of his four-year spell at Dortmund.
Hudson-Odoi has missed Chelsea's two games since the last international break because of a hamstring injury, meaning Pulisic has been even more assured of his starting place in spite of missing the recent U.S. matches against Canada and Cuba with a hip injury.
With Chelsea's young brigade of Tammy Abraham, Mount, and Fikayo Tomori excelling under the guidance of Lampard, and now Pulisic and Kovacic really blossoming, Chelsea has a depth of quality in its squad few would have foreseen after the club was placed under a two-window transfer embargo by FIFA.
In a time of supposed adversity, Chelsea suddenly has unexpected strength.
Pulisic and Kovacic, who showed patience and determination when the going got tough, are the personification of that.
Manchester City's Abu Dhabi ownership has expanded its portfolio of worldwide soccer clubs to eight by buying a majority stake in Indian Super League team Mumbai City FC.
City Football Group, of which English champion Man City is the flagship team, says it has acquired 65% of the Indian club.
CFG already has the following partnership clubs: New York City in Major League Soccer, Melbourne City in Australia's A-League, Girona in Spain's top division, Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China, and Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay. The group also has a "collaboration agreement"" with Venezuelan team Atletico Venezuela.
Mumbai FC is in its sixth season in the ISL and has an 8,000-capacity stadium, the Mumbai Football Arena.
CFG says Mumbai will "benefit from the group's commercial and football know-how, whilst at the same time delivering a new and exciting element to the CFG global commercial platform."
Bangladesh Under-23 Football team, now in Nepal, started their training sessions from Thursday ahead of their 13th South Asian (SA) Games campaign beginning from December 2 at Dasarath Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu.
Team Manager of Bangladesh team Satyajit Das Rupu said to UNB that booters’s first training session was held on Thursday morning under Assistant Coach Stuart Paul.
“They first training session was held on Thursday morning under Stuart Paul. Jamie Day will join us today,” Rupu said.
A 24-member Bangladesh football team reached Nepalese capital Kathmandu on Wednesday afternoon to take part in the five-team SA Games football eyeing a final berth.
All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has rescheduled the fixture as runners-up India are not taking part in the football event.
According to the new schedule, Bangladesh will face Bhutan in the opening match of league-basis competition on December 2 at 1:15 pm (BST) at Dasarath Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu.
Bangladesh will play Maldives on December 3 at 5:15 pm, Sri Lanka on December 5 at 5:15 pm and hosts and defending champions Nepal on December 10 at 5:15 pm, all at the same stadium.
The top two teams will play final on December 10 at 5:15 pm.