Barcelona and Manchester United on Thursday played out a thrilling 2-2 draw in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League playoff, while Juventus were left frustrated by Nantes in a 1-1 stalemate.
The game at the Camp Nou brought together two European giants who met in two UEFA Champions League finals in 2008-2009 and 2010-2011, and who are both in excellent form domestically.
After a goalless first half, La Liga leaders Barcelona went ahead five minutes into the second thanks to a Marcos Alonso header from a corner.
Photo: Reuters
However, United drew level just three minutes later when Marcus Rashford beat Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen at his near post to score a 13th goal in 15 games since the FIFA World Cup.
The English Premier League side then took the lead just before the hour mark through a Jules Kounde own-goal, but a Raphinha cross flew in inside the final quarter of an hour to secure a draw for Barca before a crowd of more than 90,000.
“I think it was a great game. Two attacking teams, I think it was a Champions League game, even more than that,” United boss Erik ten Hag told broadcaster BT Sport. “We have to finish it in Old Trafford.”
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez was left complaining that his side should have had a penalty for a handball by Fred.
“It’s a stolen penalty,” Xavi said. “I don’t know why they don’t whistle for penalties for handball now. It seems incredible to me. Incredible.”
Winning the Europa League could represent the best chance for Juventus to return to the Champions League next season after they were handed a 15-point deduction in Serie A.
That punishment, for what the Italian Football Federation ruled was illicit transfer activity designed to artificially boost their accounts, has left the Turin giants 12 points adrift of the top four in the league.
Against Nantes they looked on course for a comfortable win when Federico Chiesa nodded a ball across the face of goal for Dusan Vlahovic to open the scoring early on, but Coupe de France holders Nantes equalized on the breakaway on the hour when Ludovic Blas ran through to finish emphatically.
A Chiesa shot then hit the underside of the bar and bounced down without quite all of the ball crossing the line, before it struck the post and rebounded away.
Nantes also survived a video assistant referee penalty check for a handball deep in stoppage-time, the referee instead giving them a free-kick and leaving Juventus with work to do in the return leg.
Elsewhere, AS Monaco came from behind to triumph 3-2 away against Xabi Alonso’s Bayer 04 Leverkusen, with Axel Disasi scoring the winner in the 92nd minute.
An own-goal by Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky had put Monaco ahead early on, only for second-half goals by Moussa Diaby and Florian Wirtz to turn the game around.
However, Krepin Diatta pulled the principality team back level before France defender Disasi’s strike.
Shakhtar Donetsk were 2-1 winners against Stade Rennais as the Ukrainian club played their first European game since selling winger Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea.
Playing in the Polish capital, Warsaw, Dmytro Kryskiv put Shakhtar ahead and Artem Bondarenko netted a penalty before Karl Toko-Ekambi pulled one back for Rennes.
Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma went down 1-0 away to Austrian champions Salzburg, with Argentine midfielder Nicolas Capaldo scoring a late winner.
Sevilla, the competition’s most successful club, beat PSV Eindhoven 3-0 in Spain as Youssef En-Nesyri, Lucas Ocampos and Nemanja Gudelj all netted.
Ajax drew 0-0 with Union Berlin, while Sebastian Coates scored deep into stoppage-time to earn Sporting a 1-1 draw with Midtjylland of Denmark in Lisbon.
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