© EuroFootball.com
On Thursday evening, another football tournament returned to European stadiums. The first sixteenth-finals matches were played in the UEFA Europa League.
The Italian champions, Turin's Juventus footballers, defeated the Turkish Trabzonspor team at home after goals from Pablo Osvaldo and Paul Pogba.
Another Serie A representative, Fiorentina, won 3-1 away against the Danish Esbjerg footballers and has a two-goal advantage at home before the match.
Valencia also secured victory in the visitors' fortress, defeating Kiev's Dynamo, while the English team Tottenham lost to the Dnipro footballers.
Lisbon's Benfica and the Dutch AZ clubs also gained an advantage in away matches, defeating the Greek PAOK and Czech Slovan Liberec teams, respectively.
In a later match, the Salzburg Red Bull footballers achieved a crushing victory, beating Amsterdam's Ajax team 3-0. Former Barcelona B forward Jonathan Soriano scored two goals.
The Rome Lazio footballers suffered a home defeat to the Bulgarian Ludogorets team.
The match between Swansea City and the Italian giants Napoli ended goalless, as did the match in Tel Aviv between the local Maccabi and Basel, where no goals were scored either.
The Porto team wasted their advantage, playing 2-2 against the Eintracht Frankfurt club. The same result was recorded between the Maribor and Sevilla clubs.
The second leg matches of the sixteenth-finals will be played on March 20.
Results:
"Anzhi" 0 - 0 "Genk" 89‘ I. Maksimov ("Anzhi") - red card "Dnipro" 1 - 0 "Tottenham" 81‘ [1 - 0] Y. Konoplyanka (penalty) "Juventus" 2 - 0 "Trabzonspor" 16‘ [1 - 0] P. Osvaldo 90‘ [2 - 0] P. Pogba "Chornomorets" 0 - 0 "Lyon" "Esbjerg" 1 - 3 "Fiorentina" 9‘ [0 - 1] A. Matri 10‘ [1 - 1] M. Pusic 15‘ [1 - 2] J. Iličič 37‘ [1 - 3] A. Aquilani "Dynamo Kyiv" 0 - 2 "Valencia" 79‘ [0 - 1] E. Vargas 90‘ [0 - 2] S. Feghouli "PAOK" 0 - 1 "Benfica" 59‘ [0 - 1] Lima "Slovan Liberec" 0 - 1 "AZ" 89‘ [0 - 1] N. Viergever "Real Betis" 1 - 1 "Rubin Kazan" 3‘ [1 - 0] D. Vila 74‘ [1 - 1] R. Eremenko (penalty) 28‘ A. Prudnikov ("Rubin") - red card "Swansea City" 0 - 0 "Napoli" "Maribor" 2 - 2 "Sevilla" 33‘ [1 - 0] M. Tavares 47‘ [1 - 1] K. Gameiro 72‘ [1 - 2] F. Fazio 81‘ [2 - 2] D. Vršič "Viktoria Plzen" 1 - 1 "Shakhtar Donetsk" 62‘ [1 - 0] S. Tecl 64‘ [1 - 1] L. Adriano "Lazio" 0 - 1 "Ludogorets" 45‘ [0 - 1] R. Bezjak 55‘ S. Dyakov ("Ludogrets") - red card 73‘ L. Cavanda ("Lazio") - red card "Ajax" 0 - 3 "Salzburg" 14‘ [0 - 1] J. Soriano (penalty) 21‘ [0 - 2] S. Mane 35‘ [0 - 3] J. Soriano "Maccabi Tel Aviv" 0 - 0 "Basel" "Porto" 2 - 2 "Eintracht Frankfurt" 44‘ [1 - 0] R. Quaresma 68‘ [2 - 0] S. Varela 72‘ [2 - 1] Joselu 77‘ [2 - 2] A. Sandro (own goal)
