Surprise Europa League defeats for Steaua and Southampton

Southampton’s Graziano Pelle and Maya Yoshida – Action Images/Matthew Childs

Former European champions Steaua Bucharest and English Premier League Southampton suffered shock defeats by Scandinavian teams in Europa League qualifiers on Thursday.

Steaua, who beat Barcelona 2-0 on penalties in the final of the 1986 European Cup, won the second leg 1-0 at Rosenborg Trondheim but the Norwegians went through 3-1 on aggregate.

The Romanians are fifth in their domestic league, four points behind leaders Astra after eight matches.

A 28th-minute goal by Morten Rasmussen led Danes Midtjylland to a 1-0 victory as Ronald Koeman’s out-of-sorts Southampton were eliminated 2-1 on aggregate.

Southampton are third from bottom in the Premier League, having failed to win any of their opening three games of the season.

Elsewhere, a hat-trick by Marco Reus and two goals from Shinji Kagawa helped Borussia Dortmund thump Norwegian club Odd 7-2 as the Bundesliga side scored a runaway 11-5 aggregate triumph.