Europa League: Swansea beat Petrolul Ploiesti 5-1
In other matches late on Thursday, Real Betis triumphed 2-1 at Czechs Jablonec and Ukraine giants Dynamo Kiev won 3-2 at Kazakhs Aktobe Lento.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: August 23, 2013 11:12 am IST
Swansea City trounced Romanians Petrolul Ploiesti 5-1 in Wales, making it a good outing for the English Premier League sides in the Europa League after Tottenham hammered Dinamo Tbilisi 5-0 on Thursday.
Wayne Routledge started the ball rolling, scoring a pair of first half goals either side of Spaniard Michu's (in pic) close range toe poke.
And Ploiesti's Brazilian goalkeeper Picanha scored an unfortunate own goal to compound matters in the second half, elbowing the ball over the line after he had initially saved Wilfried Bony's near post flick.
Alejandro Pozuelo rounded off matters 20 minutes from time with a clever dink over the grounded Picanha after Michu's through ball.
But the goal of the night came from Ploiesti's Gheorge Grozav three minutes from time with a stunning overhead bicycle kick from the edge of the area that earned him a standing ovation from the Swansea crowd.
In other games, Jorge Molina and Cedric scored as Real Betis triumphed 2-1 at Czechs Jablonec, for whom Jan Kopic hit the net.
Ukraine giants Dynamo Kiev won 3-2 at Kazakhs Aktobe Lento while Russians Rubin Kazan won 2-0 at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Molde.
Former European Cup winners Feyenoord lost 1-0 at Russians Kyban Krasnodar while France's Saint-Etienne, finallists in 1976, were beaten 4-3 at Danes Esbjerg.