Barcelona stumbled to a goalless draw with Galatasaray on Thursday in their Europa League last-16 first leg at the Camp Nou, while Rangers took a 3-0 lead in their draw against Red Star Belgrade. Barca of Xavi Hernandez, who plays in Europe’s second-tier league for the first time since 2004, dominated for a long time. But it was their Turkish visitors who almost took a lead before the return leg in Istanbul next week, with Bafetimbi Gomis only being denied a winner by a VAR assessment for offside.
Memphis Depay, who made his first start since December, forced Galatasaray goalkeeper Inaki Pena to make two good saves in the first half.
Jordi Alba, Ousmane Dembele and Frenkie de Jong all came close for Barcelona in the second period, but the hosts failed to find a breakthrough.
“The feeling is bad,” Xavi admitted to Movistar+. “It’s not a good result, playing at home and dominating so much.
“This is Europe, even if it is the Europa League, and teams are there on their own merits.”
Xavi’s side are still unbeaten in 90 minutes since their defeat to Bayern Munich in their last group stage match in the Champions League last year.
But the Catalan giants will likely need a win next Thursday to extend their bid to win this competition for the first time.
Rangers took a big step towards reaching the quarter-finals for the first time since losing the 2008 UEFA Cup final to Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men backed up their stunning win over Borussia Dortmund in the play-off round with another dominant first leg performance against Red Star at Ibrox.
James Tavernier’s penalty and Alfredo Morelos’ 28th goal in the tournament gave the home side the lead.
Visiting midfielder Aleksandar Katai, who had previously seen two goals disallowed, was then awarded a penalty from Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor.
The Scottish champions took full advantage, with Leon Balogun adding third place six minutes after the break to put the Glasgow giants in full control en route to the second leg.
“It’s an incredible achievement,” Rangers captain Tavernier told BT Sport. “We’re only halfway through, but the guys were brilliant.
“We’ve done really well and we’ve put ourselves in a good position. However, we can’t be complacent and we go in like it’s 0-0.”
Atalanta will take the lead to Germany next week after Luis Muriel scored twice in a 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen in Bergamo.
Leverkusen’s winger Moussa Diaby’s 63rd minute strike, his eighth goal in seven games, held the score on a knife.
Elsewhere, Abel Ruiz scored in the first minute as Braga defeated Monaco 2-0 in Portugal, while Munir El Haddadi gave Sevilla a 1-0 home win over West Ham in the early kick-off.
Thriller with eight goals
Goals abounded in the third division of the Europa Conference League, with PSV Eindhoven and FC Copenhagen playing a remarkable 4-4 draw.
The Danish visitors led 3-1 and 4-3 in the Philips Stadium, but Eran Zahavi grabbed the equalizer for PSV with five minutes to go after Cody Gakpo had scored twice and missed a goal.
Leicester defeated French side Rennes 2-0 at King Power Stadium when Kelechi added Iheanacho’s stoppage time effort on the half hour to Marc Albrighton’s opener.
“This was a very difficult draw for us against a very good team,” said Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers.
“I thought the players were fantastic. The concentration level was very good.”
promoted
Jose Mourinho’s Roma took a 1-0 win over Vitesse Arnhem and Marseille conceded a late goal in a 2-1 success against FC Basel at the Stade Velodrome.
Feyenoord ran to a 5-2 thrashing of Partizan Belgrade in Serbia on a bad night for the country’s capital clubs, and Slavia Prague defeated LASK Linz 4-1.
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