UEL: Bale starts as Spurs win, Celtic fall to Milan

Gareth Bale helped Tottenham to an opening 3-0 victory over LASK of Austria in their Europa League campaign on Thursday night but Celtic suffered another setback with a home 3-1 loss at the hands of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s AC Milan.

There were also wins for Spurs’ Premier League rivals Arsenal and Leicester which left English sides looking back on a promising week in Europe with six victories and one draw from Champions League and Europa League games.

Despite Bale starting for the first time since his return from Real Madrid, it was on-loan Carlos Vinicius who made an impressive debut as Tottenham enjoyed a 3-0 win in their Group J opener.

Vinicius started in place of the resting Harry Kane and he made goals in either half for Lucas Moura and Son Heung-min, while he would have also netted himself had Andres Andrade not scored an own goal.

Bale made that goal where Andrade put through his own net.

Leicester made the perfect start in Group G with a comfortable 3-0 win over Zorya Luhansk of Ukraine.

James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Kelechi Iheanacho were on the scoresheet.

In Glasgow, Celtic struggled against Serie A leaders Milan who were 2-0 up at halftime thanks to goals from Rade Krunic and Brahim Diaz.

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Mohamed Elyounoussi reduced the arrears after the break, but Jens Petter Hauge broke clear to secure Milan’s Group H win in stoppage time.

Milan were so comfortable that they could afford to take Ibrahimovic off just after the hour.