Europa League 2025-26: Ozer de Held while Lille beats Roma; Bologna pulls with Freiburg

Lille Keeper Berke Ozer saved three consecutive penalties to help his party win a 1-0 win over AS Roma in the Europa League, thanks to the early strike of Hakon Arnar Haraldsson, while Bologna and SC Freiburg fought for a 1-1 draw on Thursday.

In the very first competitive meeting between the parties, Lille’s Arnar Haraldsson used an early Roma error to fire the visitor after six minutes.

Roma’s best opening of the first half came in a hectic spell in the box, where a series of attempts was divested by Lille’s stubborn defense before the Neil El Aynaoui strike was cleared by Aissa Mandi, causing the French side to break the front.

The second half started in more even terms, with Lille returning some possession, but a large part of the period turned into a midfield fight when both parties searched for openings to build their attacks.

Roma got a golden chance to be the same in the last minutes after a handball from Mandi, but the penalty from Artem Dovbyk was saved by Ozer.

Drama followed when the Lille keeper was supposed to have moved his line, only for Dovbyk’s second attempt to be stopped, but with Ozer too early ahead.

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A third attempt was then entrusted to Matias Soule, but incredible, Ozer also denied him, and this time the salvation, who sealed Lille’s victory.

Bologna and Freiburg played a 1-1 draw, in which the Germans checked a lot of the opening phase in the game in Italy.

However, the Italians continued when Riccardo Orsolini jumped on a rebound after Freiburg keeper Noah Atubolu had not held a shot and shot home just before half an hour.

Freiburg fought back after the break when Junior Adamu scored the equalizer from the penalty spot after 57 minutes. Despite the efforts of the visitors to find a winner, the parties eventually shared the loot.

Fenerbahce claimed a 2-1 home victory on Nice, built on two early goals from Kerem Akturkoglu. The wing player hit in the third minute before he doubled the pipe halfway through the first half. Kevin Carlos withdrew one from the penalty spot in the 35th minute.

The finalists of last season’s conference League achieved Real Betis a 2-0 win over Bulgarian side Ludogorets. Giovani Lo Celso opened the score in the first half with an excellent curly attack from the edge of the box in the far corner, before son’s own goal sealed the result.

Braga claimed his very first victory against the Scottish opposition in the UEFA competition and defeated Celtic 2-0 in Glasgow thanks to goals by Ricardo Horta and Gabri Martinez.

Published on October 3, 2025