BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom: Aston Villa ended their winless run by beating Bologna 1-0 to open their Europa League campaign, while Rangers manager Russell Martin's job was placed into peril by a 1-0 home defeat to Genk on Thursday.
Despite failing to win any of their first five Premier League games, Villa had been installed as pre-tournament favourites for the Europa League.
The English side reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season, losing narrowly to eventual winners Paris Saint Germain, and in Unai Emery have a manager who has won the Europa League four times during spells at Sevilla and Villarreal.
A feeling all is not well in the Villa camp was evidenced by Emery labelling his players "lazy" after failing to beat 10-man Sunderland on Sunday, while sporting director Monchi left the club this week.
However, they did enough to get the better of the Coppa Italia winners thanks to captain John McGinn's early strike.
The Scotland international fired into the bottom corner from the edge of the area on 13 minutes.
Ollie Watkins was left on the bench after his scoreless start to the campaign and failed to break his drought even from the penalty spot in the second half.
The England international's tame spot-kick was easily saved by Lukasz Skorupski.
Villa could have been made to pay when Santiago Castro headed against the bar.
But just as when the sides met in the Champions League last season, Bologna's trip to Villa Park ended in defeat.
"Important to get a win at home after not our strongest start to the season," said McGinn.
"We haven't been good enough. We've had a lot of praise the past couple of seasons and we're rightly being criticised at the minute."
OH NO FOR RANGERS
Rangers boss Martin was met with more chants for his exit after the Scottish giants' latest disappointing result at Ibrox.
Mohamed Diomande's red card just before half-time for a wild challenge gave the home side a mountain to climb.
Former Celtic striker Oh Hyeon-Gyu had a mixed return to Glasgow as his penalty in first-half stoppage time was saved by Jack Butland.
But the South Korean international grabbed the only goal with a composed finish 10 minutes into the second period.
Former Southampton boss Martin, who was only hired in June, has now failed to win any of Rangers' last eight games in the Scottish Premiership or European competition.
Olivier Giroud scored Lille's late winner in a 2-1 victory over Norwegian side Brann.
American international Tanner Tessmann handed Lyon a 1-0 win away to Utrecht.
Stuttgart beat Celta Vigo 2-1, while Porto were 1-0 winners away to RB Salzburg. — AFP
Europa League league phase matchday one results on Thursday:
Go Ahead Eagles (NED) 0 FCSB (ROM) 1 (Miculescu 13)
Lille (FRA) 2 (Igamane 54, Giroud 80) Brann (NOR) 1 (Magnusson 60)
Aston Villa (ENG) 1 (McGinn 13) Bologna (ITA) 0
Ferencvaros (HUN) 1 (Pesic 90+4) Viktoria Plzen (CZE) 1 (Durosinmi 16)
Rangers (SCO) 0 Genk (BEL) 1 (Oh 55)
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) 0 Porto (POR) 1 (Gomes 90+3)
Stuttgart (GER) 2 (Bouanani 51, El Khannouss 68) Celta Vigo (ESP) 1 (Iglesias 86)
Utrecht (NED) 0 Lyon (FRA) 1 (Tessmann 75)
Young Boys (SUI) 1 (Janko 25) Panathinaikos (GRE) 4 (Swiderski 10, Zaroury 13, 19, 68)
Played Wednesday
Midtjylland (DEN) 2 (Christensen 7-og, Diao 89) Sturm Graz (AUT) 0
PAOK (GRE) 0 Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR) 0
Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) 3 (Beljo 21, 50, Bakrar 90+5) Fenerbahce (TUR) 1 (Szymanski 25)
Red Star Belgrade (SRB) 1 (Arnautovic 65) Celtic (SCO) 1 (Iheanacho 55)
Freiburg (GER) 2 (Osterhage 31, Eggestein 57) Basel (SUI) 1 (Otele 84)
Malmo (SWE) 1 (Johnsen 78) Ludogorets (BUL) 2 (Stanic 8-pen, Bile 23)
Nice (FRA) 1 (Moffi 77-pen) Roma (ITA) 2 (Ndicka 52, Mancini 55)
Real Betis (ESP) 2 (Bakambu 15, Antony 85) Nottingham Forest (ENG) 2 (Jesus 18, 23)
Braga (POR) 1 (Navarro 79) Feyenoord (NED) 0
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