Barcelona have been held 1-1 at dwelling by Napoli within the first leg of their Europa League knockout stage playoff tie on Thursday, whereas Scottish facet Rangers shocked Borussia Dortmund with a 4-2 win in Germany. Barca dominated proceedings however discovered themselves a purpose all the way down to the Italians after Piotr Zielinski completed off a counter-attack within the twenty ninth minute.
Barca ahead Ferran Torres equalized shortly earlier than the hour mark from the penalty spot after the video assistant referee had noticed a really refined Juan Jesus’ handball from a Adama Traore cross inside the world. Barca have been on the entrance foot all through with their model new attacking trident shaped by new signings Torres, Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, however missed a number of possibilities to take the lead.
Napoli held on as they have been bombarded within the final ten minutes, with Torres and substitutes Luuk de Jong and Ousmane Dembele lacking probability after probability in entrance of Alex Meret’s purpose. The second leg will likely be performed at Napoli subsequent week.
Barcelona’s head coach Xavi Hernandez, left, talks to Barcelona’s Gerard Pique throughout the Europa League match between Barcelona and Napoli in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
“I’m disappointed about the result, not about our game,” coach Xavi Hernandez instructed a information convention. “This is the best way, we performed properly and deserved rather more. The outcome may be very unfair.” Elsewhere, Real Betis defeated Zenit St Petersburg 3-2 after scoring twice within the first 20 minutes by Guido Rodriguez and Willian Jose. But the Russian facet fought again to equalize with two targets in three minutes scored by Artem Dzyuba and Malcom.
However, veteran midfielder Andres Guardado discovered the winner for Betis proper earlier than halftime, because the LaLiga facet held on at hand Zenit their first dwelling loss since October 2021. Sheriff Tiraspol beat Braga 2-0 at dwelling in Moldova because of targets from Sebastien Thill and Adama Traore. However, the shock of the night time got here in Germany as Rangers beat Bundesliga’s second-placed facet Borussia Dortmund 4-2.
Later, Porto fought again to get a 2-1 dwelling win towards Lazio because of a brace from Spanish striker Toni Martinez. Atalanta additionally got here again from a purpose all the way down to beat Olympiakos Piraeus 2-1 at dwelling. In Germany, Leipzig rescued a 2-2 draw towards Real Sociedad because of a late Emil Forsberg penalty.
In Spain, LaLiga second-placed facet Sevilla gained 3-1 towards Dinamo Zagreb, with French ahead Anthony Martial scoring his first purpose for the Spanish facet, and are one step nearer to advancing in a contest they’ve gained a report six occasions.” Our followers know the Europa League rather well they usually like it,” Sevilla captain Ivan Rakitic instructed reporters.
“We should get pleasure from it step-by-step. I like our possibilities right here and in LaLiga too.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
