Football: Malatyaspor off to bad start in Europa League

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Turkey's Yeni Malatyaspor had a rocky start to the first leg of the UEFA Europa League, losing 3-1 late Thursday against Serbia's FK Partizan in an away match in the third qualifying round.

The match at Partizan Stadium in Serbia's capital Belgrade kicked off at 22:00 local time (1900 GMT) and was refereed by Russia's Sergei Ivanov.

FK Partizan took the lead at home in the 4th minute as Nigerian striker Umar Sadiq scored.

In the 67th minute, Japanese player Takuma Asano scored the second goal for Partizan.

Malatyaspor’s Moroccan footballer Issam Chebake scored the team’s only goal in the 83rd minute.

But FK Partizan earned a penalty after a handball in the 90th minute. Guinean footballer Seydouba Soumah scored the penalty.

The second leg will be played on Aug. 15 in Turkey's eastern province of Malatya.

The winning team in this phase will advance to the Europa League third qualifying round and face the winners of the Molde vs Aris match in the next round.

Yeni Malatyaspor eliminated Slovenia's Olimpija Ljubljana 3-2 on aggregate in the Europa League 2nd qualifying round.

The team is competing in the UEFA Europa League for the first time in their history.

Meanwhile, FK Partizan knocked Welsh club Connah's Quay Nomads out of the tournament in the 2nd qualifying round.