That’s all for tonight’s blog – thanks for your company, goodnight!

Match report: Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens

Ed Aarons was at the Amex Stadium to watch AEK Athens ruin Brighton’s big night.

Match report: West Ham 3-1 TSC Backa Topola

These are the final scores, including the early games. Sixteen games, 52 goals: the Europa League’s back!

Group A Olympiakos 2-3 Freiburg, West Ham 3-1 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 3-3 Marseille, Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 1-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 3-2 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 2-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 1-2 Sporting
Group E Lask 1-3 Liverpool, Union Saint-Gilloise 1-1 Toulouse
Group F Panathinaikos 2-0 Villarreal, Rennes 3-0 Maccabi Haifa
Group G Servette 0-2 Slavia Prague, Sheriff Tiraspol 1-2 Roma
Group H Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 Hacken, Qarabag 1-0 Molde

The AEK Athens players are dancing in front of the away support. They’re being assaulted by the rain, and they quite rightly could not care less.

Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens Mohammadi, who should have been sent off earlier in the half for a shocking tackle on Tariq Lamptey, is now given a yellow card for a cynical foul. Given the referee’s performance, Roberto De Zerbi’s interview could be interesting.

Full time: Olympiacos 2-3 Freiburg The home side equalised twice but Maximilian Philipp’s late goal settled matters.

Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens Still five minutes of added time remaining at Brighton. Simon Adingra has been superb since coming on as substitute.

Full times: Atalanta 2-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sparta Prague 3-2 Aris Limassol

Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens It feels like it’s not going to happen for Brighton. Gross’s long-range stinger is punched away by Stankovic, and Welbeck can only head to rebound onto the roof of the net. He did well to get it anywhere near goal, in truth, as it flew towards him at an awkward height.

Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens The substitute Simon Adingra, who looks full of intent – they’ve bloody found another one haven’t they – whips a lovely curling shot that is brilliantly tipped over by Stankovic.

Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens We’re into 13 minutes of added time at Brighton.

GOAL! Olympiakos 2-3 Freiburg (Philipp 86) Just the 30 goals in eight games so far. That’s all.

West Ham 3-1 Backa Topola West Ham had a scare at the start of the second half, but overall it’s been a handsome victory. They’ve had 74 per cent possession and 21 shots, which can’t have happened too often under … well, any manager.

Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens “You could just about see that coming, Rob,” writes Chris Paraskevas. “Game was just opening up a little bit, even though AEK can’t / don’t want to hold the ball. The commentator just mentioned AEK’s famous 3-2 win over Derby County and my old man - who watched that game - is watching this with me now, hoping for another historic result!”

The latest scores

Olympiacos and Sporting has just scored, hence the bold type. I NEED MORE FINGERS.

Group A Olympiakos 2-2 Freiburg, West Ham 3-1 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 3-3 Marseille, Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 1-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 3-1 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 2-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 1-2 Sporting

Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens The interesting thing about that goal – apart from the deflection, which I think is the second inadvertent goal for AEK tonight after Gacinovic in the first half – is that when Ponce won the first header, he knocked Lamptey over in his follow through. That meant the last man Van Hecke had to come across to challenge Eliasson, which left Ponce unmarked in the middle. It probably wasn’t a foul by Ponce, just a natural collision, but it certainly influenced the goal.

Brighton 2-2 AEK Athens There are nine minutes of normal time remaining, though we should get at least double that because of the injury to Hajsafi. Danny Welbeck has just come to replace Joao Pedro, which is a little surprising – he has been much better than Ansu Fati tonight. Roberto knows.

Ajax 3-2 Marseille “This game is a cracker,” writes Amar Breckenridge. “I remember watching this fixture in the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1988. Ajax ran riot 3-0 at the Velodrome, the third goal scored by a very young sub they’d just brought on, one Dennis Bergkamp.”

The memory on you! Some cracking players on both teams in that game: Papin, Pele, Giresse, Domergue, Allofs, Menzo, Blind, Wouters, Muhren, Bosman, Bergkamp.

Brighton 2-2 AEK Athens It’s all Brighton now. Joao Pedro, on a hat-trick, is put through on goal by an excellent pass from Jan-Paul Van Hecke and drives a low shot that is kicked behind by Stankovic. That’s a really good save.

There have been a few other goals in the Europa League. Frankly I don’t have enough fingers, but you can get all the details on our live scores page. And these are the latest scores.

Group A Olympiakos 1-2 Freiburg, West Ham 2-1 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 3-2 Marseille, Brighton 2-2 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 1-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 3-1 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 2-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 1-1 Sporting

Brighton 2-2 AEK Athens This referee is having a stinker. Mohammadi has just committed an awful tackle on the substitute Tariq Lamptey, studs into the side of the leg at full speed, and the referee didn’t even give a free-kick. I’m surprised VAR didn’t get involved because that was a potential red card, never mind yellow.

The only person booked is Roberto De Zerbi for impolitely enquiring what the eff is going on. The more you see the tackle, the worse it gets.

Brighton 2-2 AEK Athens “In a bar in Kefalonia - problem is the TV showing AEK v Brighton freezes but the West Ham fans are having to chat among themselves as Olympiakos on the other screen, haha,” writes my colleague Steph Fincham. “We are brilliant so will pull this back second half …”

Penalty to Brighton! Joao Pedro robbed Damian Szymanski, who tried to kick the ball and instead booted him in the shin. At least the referee didn’t book Joao Pedro for diving this time.

Brighton 1-2 AEK Athens Joao Pedro has another big penalty appeal turned down after nicking a loose ball in the area – and again I reckon this will be overturned. It’s a clear penalty, in fact.

Rangers 0-0 Real Betis This is now the only goalless Europa League game of the night. There aren’t enough screens in the MBM bunker but the stats suggest it’s pretty close.

West Ham 0-1 TSC Backa Topola West Ham continue to be outMoyesed at the London Stadium, where Michail Antonio is about to come on.

“If anyone wants an explainer of the weirdness (and to a large extent awfulness) of the team currently embarrassing West Ham,” writes our own Nick Ames, “it’s here.”

Brighton 1-2 AEK Athens After a delay of around eight minutes, Hajsafi is replaced by Milad Mohammadi.

Brighton 1-2 AEK Athens There’s been a long delay at the Amex, where Ehsan Hajsafi is being stretchered off after a clash of heads with Jan-Paul Van Hecke. It’s clearly serious, though the body language of the players doesn’t suggest it is life-threatening. As I type, the AEK fans have started doing the Poznan.

The latest scores

Group A Olympiakos 1-2 Freiburg, West Ham 0-1 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 3-2 Marseille, Brighton 1-2 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 0-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 2-1 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 1-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 0-0 Sporting

Atalanta 1-0 Rakow Czestochowa Atalanta’s goal, meanwhile, was a flicked near-post header by Charles De Ketelaere after a good cross from Davide Zappacosta.

Peep peep! The second halves are under way.

As you were “Can confirm Borja is sporting white nails tonight,” writes Mac S.

“I was at HJK tonight to see them lose to PAOK,” writes Kári Tulinius. “There was a VAR review about a handball that seemed really clear from where I was sitting. But because a fairly obvious decision took forever to make, it became ever harder to trust the process, especially given how many VAR howlers there have been. It’s hard to have faith in VAR, because the nature of it makes people doubt what they’ve seen. Also, it’s just boring to sit in the stands and watch a guy hold his hand to his ear and nod.”

This is a side effect of VAR that isn’t commented on enough: it has scrambled everyone’s brains like never before. We’ve become so obsessed with the small print that we can’t see the wood for the big picture.

Half-time reading

Rangers 0-0 Real Betis “I am at a work party following the fortunes of Liverpool by phone in between eating extremely tiny burgers, and now my thoughts turn to Real Betis and my favourite bearded jugador Borja Iglesias,” writes Gillian Kirby. “Any update on what nail colour he’s sporting tonight against Rangers for those of us who can’t see his delightful uñas live in colour?”

There aren’t enough screens to go round. I did find this picture which, er, doesn’t tell us anything.

West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola West Ham now know what it’s like to play against themselves. They’ve had 78 per cent possession and 15 shots to Backa Topola’s one, and nobody cares because it’s still 0-0.

Brighton 1-2 AEK Athens Lewis Dunk is having a great game. Pineda spins away from Van Hecke, into the area, but Van Hecke recovers well to deflect his shot behind for a corner. That was a vital block.

The latest scores

Ayoub El Kaabi has equalised for Olympiakos against Freiburg.

Group A Olympiakos 1-1 Freiburg, West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 2-2 Marseille, Brighton 1-2 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 0-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 2-1 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 0-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 0-0 Sporting

Brighton 1-1 AEK Athens “I’m going to be an optimist about Joao Pedro,” begins Zach Neeley, “and assume at his young age he’s already wise enough to know it’s not worth your time trying to shout at someone to convince them they were wrong.”

In other news, here’s that immense header from Djibril Sidibe that put AEK in front.

“I do hope,” begins Gary Naylor, “that Brighton’s fans have a song as good as this one for their new on loan winger.”

I had you down as more of a Morrissey man.

Brighton 1-1 AEK Athens The goal seems to have relaxed Brighton, who are having their best spell of the game. Ten minutes till half-time.

West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola It’s still a goalless thrashing at the London Stadium.

Brighton 1-1 AEK Athens “Brighton seem to be thought of mainly as plucky upstarts at the moment, and people are patting them on the back for every achievement. But should we be expecting more of them?” says David Wall. “True they’ve not spent very much money and have recouped loads in selling on players. But they’re clearly well run, well coached, with a brilliant recruitment system, and a clear plan that every part of the club works towards achieving.

“Those things should be the criteria by which we assess how good a team is rather than their transfer budget, which most people look at (which isn’t to say it’s irrelevant but rather that it’s not as important as those other things). Why shouldn’t we be expecting Brighton to make it into the Champions’ League places, for instance, and criticising them when they lose matches they should be winning (such as against West Ham this season, and conceding five at home to Everton last season)?”

My feeling is we should enjoy one of the most brilliant, charming stories in English football history, a joyous antidote to all the vulgarities of modern football, and accept that the occasional 5-1 defeat to an inferior team is a price worth paying for such intrepid, futuristic football. But I suppose I would say that.

The latest scores

Group A Olympiakos 0-1 Freiburg, West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 2-1 Marseille, Brighton 1-1 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 0-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 2-1 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 0-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 0-0 Sporting

PENALTY TO BRIGHTON! The odd thing is that Joao Pedro accepted his yellow card – which has now been overturned – without complaint. Maybe he’s one of the few people on the planet who trust VAR.

VAR check He’s going to the monitor! This should be given. Joao Pedro, who has been excellent, came back inside and was caught by Ehsan Hajsafi.

Brighton 0-1 AEK Athens Joao Pedro Cruyff-turns a defender in the area and goes down. It looked like a decent penalty appeal but the referee thinks he engineered the contact and shows him a yellow card. Replays suggest it was probably a foul, and definitely not a dive.

Brighton 0-1 AEK Athens Joao Pedro has just forced a good save from Cican Stankovic with a fierce rising drive. That led to a corner, which eventually led to a wicked cross from Joao Pedro that was headed wide by Igor Julio. He should have scored.

Brighton 0-1 AEK Athens The pattern of the game so far would suggest the AEK coach Matias Almeyda (yep, him) has seen the video of West Ham’s win here a few weeks ago. They are shredding Brighton on the break, and Levi Garcia has just missed another good chance after being put through on goal.

Ajax 1-0 Marseille Never mind Total Football, Carlos Borges’ opening goal was a Charlie Hughes fantasy: a long punt from the keeper bounced over the head of a Marseille defender in the centre circle, and Borges ran through to finish clinically.

West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola It’s all West Ham at the London Stadium, where Nikola Simic has already had to make a couple of decent saves.

Brighton 0-1 AEK Athens AEK look dangerous on the counter-attack, with excellent movement and real precision in their passing.

“Beautiful, life-affirming Brighton and Total Football legends Ajax in the same group?” weeps Peter Oh. “Proof that the football gods exist!”

These are the latest scores. There has also been a goal in Rangers’ group, though not in their game.

Group A Olympiakos 0-1 Freiburg, West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 1-0 Marseille, Brighton 0-1 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 0-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 0-1 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 0-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 0-0 Sporting

Brighton 0-1 AEK Athens Erm, there are big-night nerves now. Levi Garcia runs behind Jan-Paul Van Hecke, onto an excellent through ball, and is denied by a very good save from Jason Steele.

Brighton 0-0 AEK Athens No early signs of big-night nerves from Brighton, who are probing with their usual patience and precision. Ansu Fati looks sharp. It’s also pelting down at the Amex.

Ajax 0-0 Marseille “I’m not a Marseille fan (I support their rivals Lyon), but I follow some pretty good OM fans who report on their team on Internet and their mood is pretty despondent these days,” writes Alexandre. “They just fired their coach, they drew away to a mediocre Nantes team who had 10 men for most of the game. I don’t think anybody in France expect Marseille to cause any kind of problems to Brighton, or to Ajax. So I don’t think you have to worry. Though we’ll see tonight how deeply the rot has reached (and Marseille fans can always take solace in the fact that Lyon are in a far worse situation and unlikely to compete with them for the foreseeable future).”

4 min: West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola A free-kick from James Ward-Prowse takes a deflection and spins onto the roof of the net.

Peep peep! Joao Pedro becomes the first Brighton player to kick a ball in European football. All the 8pm games are under way, and these are the latest scores.

Group A Olympiakos 0-0 Freiburg, West Ham 0-0 Backa Topola
Group B Ajax 0-0 Marseille, Brighton 0-0 AEK Athens
Group C Rangers 0-0 Real Betis, Sparta Prague 0-0 Aris Limassol
Group D Atalanta 0-0 Rakow Czestochowa, Sturm Graz 0-0 Sporting

“Afternoon Rob!” writes Joe Pearson. “Welcome to the fun! I hope you realize that Stuart promised you would play a euphonium (essentially a tenor tuba) while you posted. I can’t wait to see that TikTok video!”

Unsubscribe.

West Ham v Backa Topola It’s two and a half months since West Ham’s glorious win over Fiorentina. Only two of the players who started that game will start tonight – Lucas Paqueta and Said Benrahma – but we’ll be seeing the others as the campaign develops. Maybe not Declan Rice I guess, unless something entirely weird happens.

Brighton are in a really tough group, with Ajax and Marseille. But sod all those tedious fears: Brighton are playing in Europe FFS. And, as we have seen in the past 18 months, they can beat anyone.

Full time: Union SG 1-1 Toulouse While he was being bundled out of the MBM bunker by a frankly overzealous security staff, Stu asked me to point out that Toulouse’s Logan Costa was sent off in injury time.

Thanks Stu, evening everyone. Oh to be in Brighton tonight, where this adorable team will play in Europe for the first time. The atmosphere sounds spectacular.

Incidentally, Roberto De Zerbi has confirmed that Lewis Dunk and Evan Ferguson have minor injuries but will be fit to play Bournemouth on Sunday.

FT whistles are emerging. Liverpool’s points are safe, as are those of Leverkusen, Rennes and Qarabag. Any late drama elsewhere?

New chant potential from Paul Griffin …

Three at Lask.
Three at Lask.
God Almighty, three at Lask.

A late punctuation-related contribution from Julian Menz …

First off, Häcken has a doubly dotty ä, with what is called an omljud (similar to the German Umlaut) which has been neglected by the sire’s editors. (Some teams and names get their umlauts, some don’t. I recall it took Özil over a year to earn his dots, and Schuerrle (Swedisk keyboard, no Umlaut U), had to content himself with being named after a Billy Bragg song.

I can only apologise for any missed punctuation and other marks on your teams and players of choice. Not for the faint of heart, this liveblogging business. You’re there flapping trying to get your digits to find the tilde on Núñez’s middle N, and meanwhile four goals are flying in. Our Swedish football special projects guru (as in he’s from Sweden, not that all his special projects are on Swedish football), Marcus, will doubtless give me grief over missing Häcken’s at some point in the near future.

In the Conference League … Villa are 3-2 down at Legia Warsaw after Ernest Muci’s second goal of the game early in the second half. Aberdeen are 2-1 down at Frankfurt after a Robin Koch effort. A full round-up of FT scores in ECL games will follow shortly.

Panathinaikos double their lead at home to Villarreal. Pepe Reina can’t keep the ball out as Andraz Sporar aims his shot from just outside the box into the right corner. A combination of palm and post leads to it creeping in.

Union SG are level at home to Toulouse. Algerian forward Mohamed Amoura makes it 1-1 there. A quick reminder: that match is around 10 mins behind everything else due to a traffic congestion-related delay to kick-off. As things stand Liverpool will top Group E after the first round of games.

Pre-match reading: Brighton v AEK Athens

Salah is on for Liverpool and is already terrifying the LASK backline. There’s an air of desperation to the defending now and 1-0 to the home side feels a long, long time ago.

Mac Allister, Szoboszlai and Gomez are being readied on the Liverpool bench. Endo, Doak (who has quietly impressed with his dribbling, alas generally to no effect) and Bajcetic make way.

Elsewhere, GOALS GOALS GOALS. Rennes are 3-0 up (Yildirim 56), Qarabag are 1-0 up at Molde (Andrade 56) and Slavia Prague are 2-0 up at Servette (Ogbu 59).

With movement on the bench … an air of desperation by Liverpool’s players hoping to make an impression tonight. Núñez tries to trick his way around half the LASK players in about three square yards around the penalty spot. To be fair he befuddles a few before quietly realising that his cause is somewhat daft, and he gets predictably crowded out.

You’ll note not a huge amount has been said about Gravenberch, Endo, Bajcetic and others tonight. There hasn’t been much to say, in truth. Bajcetic and Gravenberch do contribute superbly in a promising passage of play which frees Doak on the right. He cuts inside gloriously but it’s all for nought.

However …

A first-half goal I missed … Toulouse popped one in just before half-time in that late-starting game. Have updated the scores post below as a result. It was a Thijs Dallinga spot-kick following a shirt-yank by Union SG’s Christian Burgess.

Be honest, who did a quick search after seeing a Mac Allister in the Union SG lineup? Yep, Kevin Mac Allister (not that similarly spelled one) is indeed the older brother of Liverpool’s Alexis.

Alexis remains on the bench at LASK, alongside a fairly eye-popping array of talent, as Europa League match gets off and running again. Mohamed Salah looks like he’s being prepped for a warm-up, at the very, very least.

If you haven’t already, why not sign up to Football Daily?

Today’s is headed by Barry Glendenning on Brighton’s European adventure. But you can only see the abridged version if you haven’t signed up to Football Daily. The cool cats get the full-fat version, y’see, and get to see posts like this and think: “Christ, I read that hours ago.” Why not be one of the eye-rolling cool cats, people?

Villa have equalised in Warsaw through Lucas Digne. A round-up of all the scores in the Conference League games will come shortly.

At LASK, Liverpool are more than a little ragged at times, but are also taking a kicking or two. Zulj finds himself in the book after cheekily curtailing an attempted Tsimikas break through the middle.

A bad miss at LASK or a stunning stop? Darwin Núñez gets a snappy enough header goalbound from a few yards out, but absolutely all of Lawal has made his ground across the line to meet it, and he manages to paw it away. It’s still 1-0 to the home side there.

Goals goals goals … Slavia Prague are off the mark through Lukas Masopust. They’re 1-0 up at Servette.

Meanwhile Rennes have doubled their lead, and this is one well worth hunting down yourselves – a floated free-kick 35 yards out is kind of dealt with, but after a couple of flailing headers, it breaks just outside the box, where Adrien Truffert pops a beautiful volley tight by the right post. Rennes 2-0 Maccabi Haifa

Arms in the air and yelps at LASK … as Liverpool vainly claim for a handball in the box. Tsimikas’ whipped cross is cleared by home keeper Tobias Lawal’s boot straight into the elbow of his own defender, situated about a handful of spans away from him. Suffice to say that would have been more than a little harsh. But oh boy have we seen them given. Sanity prevails in this instance.

More toots on the Conference League conch … Villa have gone 2-1 down at Legia Warsaw, Ernest Muci bringing the pain there. Aberdeen have got themselves on level terms at Eintracht Frankfurt, with Dante Polvara equalising after an Omar Marmoush penalty for the home side.

Mildly painful wordplay-based correspondence from Peter Oh …

I reckon that the Ligue 1 visitors to Union SG are fully aware that this match is theirs Toulouse.

I’m ashamed to say I did a little snort at that.

Over in Conference League corner, Aston Villa might be in for a lively night. They went 1-0 down to a Pawl Wszolek strike in the third minute but equalised in the sixth through a Jhon Durán header.

Liverpool, clad in their admittedly eye-messingly garish purple third kit, are predictably penning LASK back deep in their own half, but to little effect so far.

Rennes aren’t messing about. The Ligue 1 side are already 1-0 up against Maccabi Haifi as Ludovic Blas feasts on a rebound and slams it home.

Peeeeeeeeep … looks like Royale Union SG v Toulouse is starting a little tardily, but the other early Europa League games are off and running.

Bit of mouth-watering for one of the 8pm (BST) affairs. An extremely exciting Brighton join the European fray against AEK. I hope you’ll indulge me a quick wave to Guardian colleague Steph Fincham, who has been a little under the weather in recent times and I very much hope enjoys her club’s first continental adventure.

Joe P eyes up the team sheets and mails:

That Liverpool lineup. Wow. Does Jürgen think this is a Carabao Cup tie?

I’ll have to wag a finger in a “woah, woah, woah” fashion here. I’m actually extremely excited by Liverpool’s side tonight.

If the published formation is correct, Stefan Bajcetic – who looked a real find in midfield last season – is massively intriguing. Obviously seeing “the other two” of Klopp’s rebuild of central areas – Waturu Endo and Ryan Gravenberch – is at face value of most interest but many, many people will have eyes firmly fixed on the right wing tonight.

Ben Doak (who Andrew Bartlett correctly identified I’d misspelled in the original lineup – now fixed ta), is a player who looks capable of having tails bolt upright and wagging. Aged just 17 and despite being still to score a senior goal for the club, he lit up the pitch for Scotland U21s against Spain earlier this month in a way that didn’t just have his manager, Scot Gemmill, purring, but it also apparently put him firmly in the frame for a spot in the senior setup.

Gremlins report from Nick Goldspink …

Um, so I followed the link to Guardian Europe just to see, and I was startled to discover that the default weather setting was for Bootle? Is there something we need to know? Will I need my passport ready coming off the M62? I don’t live in Bootle.

Unfortunately he didn’t include the weather forecast for Bootle, so for anyone in and around the Sefton area currently reading from a room without windows, outside is currently a gentle breeze with sunny intervals.