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Brawl sparks after Everton's Williams shoves goalkeeper

REUTERS/Andrew Yates

Olympique Lyon took all three points from Everton in a Europa League Group E encounter on Thursday, defeating the Toffees 2-1 at Goodison Park in a tilt that was marred by a dramatic second-half brawl between the sides.

Nabil Fekir opened the scoring from the penalty spot early in the first half, but it was Everton's Ashley Williams who tried to play spoiler to Lyon's away cause, inciting a fight after shoving goalkeeper Anthony Lopes over mid-catch.

Both teams came to blows, as did some fans in the stands nearby as the mass of players stumbled toward the crowd. One fan, holding a child, was seen punching toward Lyon players, which drew further ire from the visitors. In the end, referee Bas Nijhuis only flashed yellow cards toward Williams and Lyon's Bertrand Traore.

Williams furthered his antagonistic motive by scoring an equaliser minutes later with a powerful header off a free-kick swung in by Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Traore would not have it, however, and scored the winner five minutes later, slipping the ball deftly past Jordan Pickford with a cheeky back-foot flick and restoring the advantage.

It was a lead Lyon held through the final 20 minutes, and the French outfit now sits second behind Atalanta in Group E. Meanwhile, Ronald Koeman's side is dead last with only one point out of three matches.

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