Sunderland's unbeaten start to their first European campaign in 53 years was brought to an abrupt end by Dinamo Zagreb to pile more pressure on Regis Le Bris ahead of Chelsea's visit to Wearside.

The Croatian side won 2-0 to heap more misery on Le Bris and his team at the Stadium of Light following a dismal start to the season in which his team has won just one Premier League fixture.

There were Bonfire Night fireworks across Wearside, and before the game at the Stadium of Light, but not enough on the pitch from Sunderland, who only came to life after the break.

Europa League football has been an antidote to domestic doom and gloom for Sunderland fans, with the club having made a bright start to its first European campaign in 53 years by winning two and drawing one of their first three group phases fixtures.

But it was Dinamo who would light up the first half with two moments of quality from Luke Stojkovic and Dion Beljo.

Le Bris had labelled the season as 'probably the most demanding challenge Sunderland has faced in its history' before the game, which followed a 3-1 defeat by newly-promoted Coventry City. The 3-1 loss left the Carabao Cup quarter-finalists rooted to the bottom of the Premier League with just five points from nine games, and Le Bris under scrutiny ahead of a challenging run of fixtures.

Le Bris, mindful of Sunday's Premier League game against fourth-placed Chelsea, made six changes against the Croatian champions, leaving top scorer Brian Brobbey on the bench along with influential midfielder Enzo Le Fee.

Le Bris also labelled the club's domestic struggles this term as 'growing pains', and Sunderland are not the first promoted club to suffer second-season syndrome. The problem for them is that they also have to contend with a lot more games due to their success last season.

The Black Cats found Dinamo, who parted company with domestic double-winning manager Mario Kovacevic following a shock defeat bt newly-promoted Rudes on Saturday, hard to break down in the first 15 minutes, and when Chris Rigg did get in behind after being found by captain Granit Xhaka, Jules Ahoka could not get enough power on his header.

Dinamo's Stojkovic, however, could not have hit his effort at the other end of the pitch any better. With Wilson Isidor waiting to come back on the pitch following treatment, the visitors, backed by 1,500 noisy fans, won a corner. Xhaka headed it away from goal, but only as far as Stojkovic, who chested the ball down and superbly volleyed it past Robin Roefs to put Dinamo ahead.

Thomas Meunier then clipped the woodwork with a cross aimed for the head of Isidor before things got even worse for the home side. Kevin Danso's weak clearance found Stojkovic, who clipped the ball to Beljo, who then dinked it over Roefs to put his team in control at the break.

Le Fee was one of four players sent on by Le Bris for the second half, and a goal from Isidor - he headed Xhaka free-kick home - was ruled out for offside a minute after the restart.

Sunderland, at least, were playing with some much-needed urgency following a lacklustre first 45 minutes, and Danso hit the crossbar during a spell of pressure from Le Bris's side.

Sunderland fans vented their frustration, both at their team and referee Andrea Colombo, as the second half wore on.

But Sunderland, for all their second-half possession, rarely tested goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski, Dinamo saw the game out to condemn Sunderland to only their second defeat in European competition, the last having come against Sporing Lisbon in the 1973-74 season.

Le Bris must now quickly pick up his side ahead of the visit of Chelsea.

Progression in Europe is important for the club, and Sunderland should still avoid elimination when the Europa League's group phase ends, but nowhere near as important as preserving its Premier League status.

Sparta Prague 1-3 Bournemouth - Cherries come from behind to maintain 100 per cent start in Europa League

By Luke Augustus 

Forget the icing on the cake, the Cherries joint-top, second on goal difference, of the Europa League after their come-from-behind 3-1 win at Sparta Prague.

After winning just one of their opening eight matches in all competitions, Bournemouth have now won seven on the bounce thanks to second-half goals from Tyler Adams, Evanilson and Rayan. All three came on as second-half substitutes to underline the quality that Marco Rose has at his disposal.

'You can't get too comfortable. You have to continue to hold that standard,' reflected Adams post-match. 'That winning mentality becomes continuous, especially when you're playing every three days.'

Rose, who made eight changes to his XI, will be delighted with his side's fight but will also thank Sparta centre-back Tobias Guddal who inexplicably got himself in the first half for two avoidable yellow cards.

Prior to Guddal's red card, Sparta were in the ascendancy and should have taken the lead when striker Jonatan Braut Brunes, Erling Haaland's cousin, inexplicably put wide a tap-in in the opening two minutes.

That was the biggest chance in the match until Bournemouth were awarded a penalty midway through the first half. Former Liverpool defender Ki-Jana Hoever, who is on loan from Wolves, was booked for a handball in the box. Lewis Cook's stutter run-up fooled Jakub Surovcik but saw his low effort hit the inside of the left-hand post before rolling out of play.

If Cook was unlucky, there was no element of luck to Sparta breaking the deadlock. Counter-attacking from a Cherries' corner, Surovcik threw the ball out to Ebrima Singhateh inside his own half. The impressive winger shrugged off Cook before beginning his brilliant run, which included slaloming in between Bournemouth players, and scoring. It was a goal befitting of the Champions League, let alone the Europa League.

Sparta's joy was short-lived as Guddal, who had already been booked for a foul on Ben Gannon-Doak, then inexplicably brought down Alvaro Rodriguez.

Rose turned to his bench at half-time and all of his changes worked as they pressed Sparta into mistakes. Adams was the beneficiary for their first goal as he scored with a low right-footed shot from outside the box 12 minutes after coming on.

With 10 minutes remaining Evanilson put the visitors ahead with a sublime curled effort into the far corner with no backlift.

'He's on fire right now, but you see him do it every day in training,' Adams purred about his team-mate. For him to do it in a game is no surprise. He has so much quality.

'Whenever he gets in and around the box, we're confident he's going to find the back of the net.'

Evanilson then turned provider, via a neat one-two, to see Rayan score from distance.

The result means it's four out of four in the Europa League for the European debutants. With Celta Vigo away next after the international break, don't be surprised if it's five out of five.

Crystal Palace 1-1 Hoffenheim 

By Will Pickworth at Selhurst Park

As the fourth official signalled three minutes of added time, Pierre Sage may have been cursing his luck on the Selhurst Park touchline.

Although he has been hampered by the absences of Jean-Philippe Mateta, Ismaila Sarr and Dean Henderson at points this season, plus a transfer strategy that has left him shorn of experience and quality in key areas, the Frenchman was approaching a record of eight defeats in 13 league and European games.

Two seasons ago, Crystal Palace's hierarchy kept faith with Oliver Glasner when his side won one of their first 13 matches - a record that preceded the greatest 18 months in the club's history - but Sage was running out of time to prove he deserved a similar demonstration of trust.

Enter Daichi Kamada, Palace's best player here, as he finished calmly through the legs of Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann to rescue a valuable point for his side.

But this was a let-off for Sage on a night that had felt like it could precede the final days of his tenure, and he must now summon an improved display against Liverpool this weekend.

'Conceding early in the game was difficult because we had to push to come back,' Sage said post-match. 'But we scored at the end, and the players deserved it because they didn't give up.'

There was nothing to sum up Palace's predicament quite like Alexander Prass' early opener. Having started well - with Kamada having a goal ruled out for offside - Quinten Timber saw a penalty appeal waved away before the out-of-form Adam Wharton was dispossessed. The German side broke forward at electric speed and Prass' effort squirmed through Henderson.

It was an all too familiar story as Palace's defence - weakened by Sage's decision to leave Axel Disasi out of his squad in what he later labelled 'an internal decision' - again looked ill-equipped for the challenge in hand.

'Offensively we did better than our two previous games, but we have to continue to improve defensively because we gave too much space to them,' Sage added. 'When we defend too much, we have no chance to exist in the game, and when we try to attack a little bit, we are quickly open. You don't exist in the game when you don't attack. For this team the best way to defend is to keep the ball with efficiency.'

The hosts were careless on the ball though, doing little to improve the subdued atmosphere at Selhurst Park, and although Yeremy Pino and Kamada spurned good chances, Hoffenheim appeared to have closed out the game.

Palace's frustration was demonstrated by four yellow cards in seven minutes, before Wharton received a second shortly after to compound their misery.

The home faithful threatened to turn restless and it looked like the night would end in disappointment, until Kamada's strike gave Sage a lifeline. 

Getafe 0-1 Brighton

By James Sharpe

Trust Pascal Gross to seize the moment. For a little over an hour, Brighton toiled and laboured in pursuit of the goal that would ignite their European dreams.

The Seagulls have made light work of the Premier League, these vanquishers of Arsenal and Manchester City and now are starting to stretch their dominance across the continent.

Gnarly minnows Getafe love to make life deeply unpleasant for their opponents and Brighton, for all their energy and endeavour, looked destined to be unable to find the answers.

Yet there he was, this 35-year-old starting a remarkable 16th straight game of the season when it mattered. There was Gross, afforded too much space on the left, allowed to spot the run of Joao Costinha towards the back post.

Naturally, the German landed his raking cross right on Costinha's head. The wing-back nodded it across goal for Malick Yalcouye to send a header of his own into the top corner to win it and send Brighton, who are yet to concede in the competition, into the Conference League play-off places and their fans dreaming of European glory.

'The fans should dream and, hopefully at one point, maybe we fulfil their dream,' said Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler.

'We focus on work and we focus on the things we can control. We didn't play our best game. We had a few moments where we were lazy with the easy things. We didn't do the simple things on the highest level. But we kept a clean sheet, scored in the right moment and I think we deserve to win this game.'

Getafe, this modest club from the outskirts of Madrid, have long lived in the shadow of their monumental neighbours Real and Atletico but have also earned a famous reputation for a good old-fashioned giant killing.

They once beat Barcelona 4-0 here to overturn a three-goal deficit to reach the Copa del Rey final and then did them again in the league the following season. They went up the road to the Bernabeu in March and came away with three points.

Brighton, meanwhile, have made such a habit of turning over the bigger boys that, for the Seagulls, it's stopped becoming that extraordinary.

They mix so frequently among the giants these days that it's often easy to see the Seagulls as ones themselves. Getafe certainly would.

What was always going to be fascinating was the clash of styles. Brighton, with their relentless press and free-flowing football under Fabian Hurzeler, against a physical Getafe side that boasts the lowest possession and pass success rate in La Liga. There's a reason their players have already been shown six red cards

They certainly made it awkward for Brighton at times here. Bart Verbruggen was twice called upon to deny Getafe striker Ivan Azon in the first half – initially after some chaos inside the Brighton box and secondly after a desperately poor back pass from Olivier Boscagli on the stroke of the break.

Unlike in their Premier League exploits, Hurzeler's side struggled to find that bit of quality when it mattered.

Georginio Rutter, in his first start since August, fizzed a cross to the back post but it eluded Yasin Ayari, the hero of the Eithad, and then fired a shot of his own wide.

Heaven only knows how the ball didn't end up in the net when Jaouen Hadjam, Brighton's brightest spark, raced through on goal but couldn't beat the keeper or the post and Yalcouye's rebound couldn't find the gaping goalmouth.

Hadjam flicked the top of the crossbar with another effort in the second half before substitute Luka Vuskovic blazed another over.

Thankfully, as so often is the case, Gross was there to make it count.