Nigerian striker Ikechukwu Uche scored the equaliser for Villarreal as the Spanish club came away from Germany with a 1-1 draw against Borussia Monchengladbach in a Europa League match on Thursday.

Patrick Herrmann had put Monchengladbach ahead midway through the first half while Uche poked in the equaliser three minutes after coming on, only to go off injured three minutes after his goal following a collision with Yann Sommer.

Monchengladbach had a penalty call from the assistant referee overruled by the referee late on as both sides settled for a point apiece in their opening Group A match of the competition.

Appollon Limassol meanwhile head the group after matchday 1 courtesy of a dramatic 3-2 win at home to FC Zurich in a match that witnessed both sides reduced to 10 men in the closing minutes stages.

Limassol led by two goals at half-time through goals from Fotis Papoulis and Marcos Gullon, but two goals in three minutes early in the second half saw the visitors level up only for Philippe Koch’s own goal to win it for Limassol three minutes from the end.

Elsewhere in the Europa League, Red Bull Salzburg twice came from behind to earn a share of the spoils in a 2-2 draw with Efe Ambrose’s Celtic while Danilo’s goal 12 minutes from time gave Inter Milan a 1-0 win at Russian club Dnipro.

Stefanos Athanasiadis scored a first half hattrick in PAOK Thessaloniki’s 6-1 thrashing of Dinamo Minsk while Claudiu Keseru scored a second half hattrick for Steaua Bucuresti in a 6-0 demolition of Danish side Aalborg.