Barcelona held by Napoli in Europa League while Rangers shock Dortmund
Barcelona were held 1-1 at home by Napoli in the first leg of their Europa League knockout stage playoff tie on Thursday, while Scottish side Rangers shocked Borussia Dortmund with a 4-2 win in Germany.
Barca dominated proceedings but found themselves a goal down to the Italians after Piotr Zielinski finished off a counter-attack in the 29th minute.
Barca forward Ferran Torres equalised shortly before the hour mark from the penalty spot after the video assistant referee had spotted a very subtle Juan Jesus' handball from a Adama Traore cross inside the area.
Barca were on the front foot throughout with their brand new attacking trident formed by new signings Torres, Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but missed several chances to take the lead.
Napoli held on as they were bombarded in the last ten minutes, with Torres and substitutes Luuk de Jong and Ousmane Dembele missing chance after chance in front of Alex Meret's goal. The second leg will be played at Napoli next week.
"I'm disappointed about the result, not about our game," coach Xavi Hernandez told a news conference. "This is the way, we played well and deserved much more. The result is very unfair."
Elsewhere, Real Betis defeated 3-2 Zenit St Petersburg after scoring twice in the first 20 minutes through Guido Rodriguez and Willian Jose. But the Russian side fought back to equalise with two goals in three minutes scored by Artem Dzyuba and Malcom.
However, veteran midfielder Andres Guardado found the winner for Betis right before halftime, as the LaLiga side held on to hand Zenit their first home loss since October 2021.
Sheriff Tiraspol beat Braga 2-0 at home in Moldova thanks to goals from Sebastien Thill and Adama Traore. However, the shock of the night came in Germany as Rangers beat Bundesliga's second-placed side Borussia Dortmund 4-2.
Later, Porto fought back to get a 2-1 home win against Lazio thanks to a brace from Spanish striker Toni Martinez. Atalanta also came back from a goal down to beat Olympiakos Piraeus 2-1 at home.
In Germany, Leipzig rescued a 2-2 draw against Real Sociedad thanks to a late Emil Forsberg penalty.
In Spain, LaLiga second-placed side Sevilla won 3-1 against Dinamo Zagreb, with French forward Anthony Martial scoring his first goal for the Spanish side, and are one step closer to advancing in a competition they have won a record six times.
"Our fans know the Europa League really well and they love it," Sevilla captain Ivan Rakitic told reporters. "We have to enjoy it step by step. I like our chances here and in LaLiga too."
Early goal gives PSV advantage over Maccabi, Leicester win big at home
PSV Eindhoven claimed a 1-0 win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the first leg of their Europa Conference League knockout stage playoff tie on Thursday thanks to an early goal from Cody Gakpo, while Leicester City thrashed Randers FC 4-1 at home.
PSV's young Dutch winger Gakpo received a through ball by Mauro Junior in the 11th minute and cleared a defender on the edge of the box before drilling a perfectly-placed shot into the bottom left corner to give the hosts the lead.
The Eredivisie side dominated the match but were not able to increase their advantage and will travel to Israel next week with a slim lead.
Elsewhere, Slavia Prague won 3-2 away at Fenerbahce while Danish side Midtjylland beat PAOK 1-0 at home. Austrian club Rapid Wien had a man sent off but still managed to scrape a 2-1 win over Vitesse Arnhem.
Later, Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt claimed a surprising 3-1 win over Celtic in Scotland. Leicester scored three times in the second half to give them a 4-1 win against Denmark's Randers FC and Olympique Marseille defeated Qarabag 3-1 in France. Partizan Belgrade claimed a 1-0 win at Sparta Prague.
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers praised his "dynamic" team, who ended a five-match winless run in all competitions with Thursday's victory.
"This group will get back to its level, it is just time and players coming back (from injuries)," Rodgers said. "The fluency was good, we looked dynamic.
"Our goal for the remainder of the season is to finish as high as we can in the league, to keep developing, improving and to get players back."
