Europa League 3/8/12.

It was quite the day of upsets today in the Europa League as Sporting Lisbon registered a 1-0 home victory against a big-budget Manchester City side. Xandao's 51st minute back-heel ball may just help the Portuguese side on their way to the next round. Despite the seemingly overwhelming talent gap between the Premier League leaders and the languishing Portuguese side, the English side had no real advantage though they were able to launch 51 attacks to Sporting's 39. Meanwhile, Metalist and Olympiacos had a similarly heated bout with the visiting Greek side actually managing to pull a win out of the hat thanks to David Fuster's 50th minute strike and comprehensive defending through-out the match. The Ukrainians sure made Balazs Megyeri, the Olympiacos goalie, work though! They had the better of the chances as well as more than 20 more attacks. On now to Spain where Atletico Madrid got off to a good start in their match with Turkish side Besiktas: Eduardo Salvio struck Atletico's first two goals in the 24th and 27th minutes before Adrian Lopez made it 3-0 in the 37th minute. The Turkish visitors didn't take it lying down though, Simao brought them one back in the 53rd minute to make it more of a competitive 2nd leg. Twente's hosting of Schalke 04 in the Netherlands was another surprise for the day as the small Dutch side battled clinically and took full advantage of Joel Matip's red card offense with Luuk de Jong putting away the penalty kick that followed in the 61st. It was a match of relatively few chances! Probably the hugest upset of the day though, was Manchester United's 2-3 loss to visiting Athletic of Spain. Coming back from 1-0 down after Wayne Rooney scored in the 22nd minute, Athletic proceeded to score three of their own before Rooney struck once more, in the 2nd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half. Back to the goals though! Fernando Llorente was the man who equalized - deservedly - for the Spaniards just before half-time in the 44th minute. Oscar de Marcos then made it 1-2 for Athletic in the 71st minute - volleying low and hard into the bottom right corner of the net. Athletic's 3rd came from Iker Muniain in the 90th minute after he collected de Marcos's powerful shot that was hit away and directed it back into the net. Rooney was then granted a penalty which he dutifully converted in the 2nd minute of stoppage time to make it 2-3. Standard Liege and Hannover tied 2-2 in their bout in Belgium. AZ Alkmaar and Udinese finished 2-0 with goals in the 2nd half winning it for the home side. Last but not least, Valencia and PSV finished 4-2! Sorry for the rush! Gotta go!