Romelu Lukaku on Thursday shouldered in the equalizer to earn AS Roma a 1-1 draw away to Feyenoord in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League playoff.
Elsewhere, a pair of Argentine veterans struck late to give their teams victories.
Mauro Icardi fired home a shot from the edge of the penalty area in stoppage-time to earn Galatasaray a 3-2 home win over Sparta Prague after the Czechs had twice fought back from a goal down.
Photo: Reuters
In Lisbon, Angel di Maria converted his second penalty of the game seven minutes into stoppage-time to give SL Benfica a 2-1 victory over Toulouse.
AC Milan beat Stade Rennais 3-0 with England midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek scoring two headed goals and Rafael Leao rounding off a dominant home display after a neat exchange with Theo Hernandez.
“I’ve been working on this, getting to the right position to score and it’s going well now,” Loftus-Cheek said. “Tonight was incredible at home.”
In Hamburg, Germany, Iliman Ndiaye thought he had bagged a last-minute winner for Olympique de Marseille, but Eguinaldo’s stoppage-time strike rescued a point for Ukrainian exiles Shakhtar Donetsk in a 2-2 draw.
In Rotterdam, Netherlands, Igor Paixao headed hosts Feyenoord in front in stoppage-time at the end of the first half, but in the 67th minute, Lukaku met a cross with his shoulder to send the ball looping into the net.
“The defender was trying to hold me off, but I knew I was much stronger than him, so I got to the ball,” Lukaku told UEFA.com. “When the chance comes, you have to score — and that’s what we did.”
It was his 21st goal in his past 18 Europa League appearances.
“Both teams created a lot of chances and had a lot of shots,” Feyenoord coach Arne Slot said. “Sometimes we were better, sometimes they were.”
Marseille, whose only victory this year was against fifth-tier Thionville in the Coupe de France, twice seemed briefly poised to break that barren streak.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the visitors ahead after 64 minutes with a first-time half-volley, but four minutes later Mykola Matviyenko fired home after Marseille failed to clear a free-kick.
Aubameyang then crossed for Ndiaye to restore the lead with time running out. This time it lasted three minutes before Eguinaldo headed powerfully home.
“We are disappointed as we led twice, but allowed victory to slip away,” Marseille defender Samuel Gigot said.
“We are unhappy with the result as we wanted to win. I think we deserved to win with our display,” Shakhtar defender Yukhym Konoplia said.
In the other first-leg ties, BSC Young Boys lost 3-1 at home to Portugal’s Sporting, RC Lens were held goalless at home by SC Freiburg and SC Braga lost 4-2 at home to Qarabag.
The 16 teams in the playoffs are battling for the right to join the eight seeds who have already qualified for the round-of-16.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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