Europa League
- Milan place one foot in round of 16 with 3-0 win over Rennes
- Di María scores two penalties to give Benfica the edge
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Fri 16 Feb 2024 00.03 CET
Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored twice as Milan beat Rennes 3-0 in the first leg of their Europa League knockout playoff.
The England international continued his fine recent form with headers in the 32nd and 47th minutes, with Rafael Leão adding a third goal in the 52nd minute. Milan, who finished third in their Champions League group, have one foot in the last 16 ahead of next week’s second leg.
There was a big away win for Karabaghwho defeated Braga 4-2 in Portugal. Marko Jankovic opened the scoring for the visitors from the penalty spot midway through the first half, but Simon Banza levelled matters just before the break. However, Qarabag were not to be denied and Abdellah Zoubir scored twice either side of a goal from Juninho before João Moutinho grabbed a late second for Braga from the penalty spot.
Benfica 2-1 Toulouse, Milan 3-0 Rennes and more: Europa League playoffs – as it happened
It was a better night for the other Portuguese sides, with Sporting and Benfica both winning. Sporting will fancy their chances of going through after beating Young Boys 3-1 away from home. An own goal from Aurèle Amenda was followed by a penalty from Viktor Gyökeres, before Young Boys pulled one back just before half-time through Filip Ugrinic. Gonçalo Inácio restored the two-goal advantage three minutes after the restart and Young Boys finished with 10 men after Mohamed Ali Camara was sent off late on.
Benfica still have work to do against Toulouse after snatching a very late 2-1 victory courtesy of two Ángel Di María penalties. The first was cancelled out by Mikkel Desler, but the second came eight minutes into stoppage time after Christian Mawissa was shown a red card.
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Conference League playoffs
Ajax scored twice in stoppage time to secure a dramatic 2-2 draw with Bodø/Glimt in the first leg of their playoff tie. Bodø/Glimt’s Albert Grønbæk put the away side ahead in the 16th minute before adding a second on 63 minutes to leave things looking bleak for Jordan Henderson’s new team. But the match turned in the 91st minute when Odin Bjørtuft was sent off for fouling Ajax forward Brian Brobbey in the box. Branco van den Boomen scored the subsequent penalty to spark a frantic finale in which Steven Berghuis equalised for the home side in the seventh minute of added time.
Molde were a 3-0 up by half-time at home against Legia Warsaw but were pegged back by two goals for the away side in the second half to leave them with a narrow 3-2 lead for the return match in Poland.
Eintracht Frankfurt took a 2-0 lead away from home against Union Saint-Gilloise but the home side fought back to draw 2-2 despite being reduced to 10 men in the 78th minute.
Olympiakos and Maccabi Haifa secured narrow 1-0 home wins against Ferencvaros and Gent respectively while Real Betis were beaten 1-0 at home by Dinamo Zagreb.
Hosts Sturm Graz overwhelmed 10-man Slovan Bratislava 4-1 in marked contrast to Servette and Ludogorets, who played out an uneventful 0-0 draw in Switzerland.
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Both sides finished with 10 men as Galatasaray defeated Sparta Prague 3-2 in Istanbul. Kerem Demirbay scored the only goal of the first half, but Ángelo Preciado levelled for Sparta two minutes after the break and, just after Dries Mertens had put Galatasaray back ahead on the hour mark, Victor Nelsson was sent off. Jan Kuchta promptly equalised again only for Matej Rynes to pick up a second yellow card 10 minutes from time and Mauro Icardi to find a winner in added time.
There was also a dramatic finish in Hamburg, where Shakhtar Donetskcontinuing to play away from their war-torn homeland, drew 2-2 with Marseille. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the French side ahead in the 64th minute, but the lead only lasted for two minutes before Mykola Matviyenko equalised. And history repeated itself right at the end of the match, with Iliman Ndiaye appearing to win it for Marseille only for Eguinaldo to level.
Romelu Lukaku canceled out Igor Paixão’s opener as Roma claimed a 1-1 draw against Feyenoordwhile Lens and Freiburg finished goalless.
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2024-02-16 01:32:00
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