Palace stumble in Europa League, Sunderland storm back

French club Lyon held off Crystal Palace 3-2 in the Europa League on Thursday, while Sunderland made a late comeback to break the hearts of Portuguese second-division side Torreense. Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, Benfica and Bournemouth all also won to maintain their perfect starts to the league phase. It was a painful return to his old home for Crystal Palace boss Pierre Sage as the Uefa Conference League champions fell to their fourth defeat of the season in all competitions. "It's a very disappointing return because we lost. I can't take satisfaction from coming back home or seeing familiar faces when the result isn't there," Sage said. "The scoreline may have been close, but there was a big difference in the way the two teams played. We were nowhere near our usual standards in the first half." Lyon took the lead inside the opening 10 minutes through Corentin Tolisso and Ernest Nuamah then doubled Lyon's advantage two minutes into first-half injury time. Yeremy Pino halved the deficit for Palace early in the second period, but a close-range flick by Pavel Sulc restored Lyon's two-goal buffer. Daichi Kamada smashed home a second for Palace with nine minutes remaining but the hosts held out to make it two wins from...