Real Madrid needed a 96th-minute winner from Melanie Leupolz on her European debut to secure a 2-1 win at Sporting Lisbon on Thursday in the first leg of round two of qualifying for the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Madrid looked set to host the second leg with the tie finely poised at one goal apiece after Sporting, fresh from knocking out four-time champions Frankfurt in round one, had equalised when Andreia Bravo’s penalty just before half-time cancelled out Athenea del Castillo’s opener.
Andreia Bravo’s penalty in the fourth minute of first-half added time had cancelled out Athenea del Castillo’s early opener.
Photo: Reuters
However, Leupolz struck with virtually the last kick of the match to gave the Spaniards the advantage when she smashed home from close range following a goalkeeping error under Olga Carmona’s looping cross.
The second leg would be played at the 6,000 caopacity Estadio Alfredo di Stefano stadium in Madrid on Thursday.
There was also late drama in Istanbul as Galatasaray were held to a 2-2 draw by Slavia Prague.
A brace in 10 second-half minutes by Andrea Staskova, an academy product of Slavia’s rivals Sparta Prague, looked to have given Galatasaray a decent lead to defend in the return fixture, but Tereza Szewieczkova pulled one back for the Czechs before Kristina Kosikova equalized in the eighth minute of injury time.
Austria’s St Polten scored three goals in the second half to take a 3-0 first-leg lead against Mura of Slovenia.
On Wednesday, Manchester City all but booked their place in the group stage by hammering Paris FC 5-0 away from home.
Arsenal went down 1-0 in Sweden against Hacken and Juventus emerged 3-1 victors at home to Paris Saint-Germain.
The second-leg ties are to take place on Wednesday and Thursday to decide who would join automatic entrants Barcelona, Lyon, Bayern Munich and Chelsea in the draw for the group stage.
Barcelona are the current Women’s Champions League champions after they beat Lyon 2-0 in last season’s final at the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao in May.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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