Rangers stun Dortmund as Napoli hold Barcelona

Rangers stunned Borussia Dortmund 4-2 in the Europa League while Barcelona had to come from behind to draw 1-1 at home to Napoli in their play-off first leg tie.

In Dortmund, James Tavernier gave Rangers the lead with a 38th-minute penalty after a handball by Dan-Axel Zagadou from a corner.

Three minutes later, Dortmund again failed to cope with a Rangers corner.

Joe Aribo nodded the ball to the far post where Alfredo Morelos was unmarked and scored from close range.

Four minutes after the break, Ryan Kent, who tormented Dortmund all night, dribbled down the left and found John Lundstram who scored with a powerful strike for the third Rangers goal in 11 minutes.

Two minutes later, Jude Bellingham replied for the home team with a rasping left-foot shot.

But two minutes after that, Rangers scored again as Zagadou, attempting to deprive Morelos of another tap in, deflected the ball into his own goal.

Pedro Guerreiro cut the deficit with eight minutes left with a ferocious long-range left-footer but Rangers survived without further scares.

Napoli gained a 1-1 draw in Barcelona.

The visitors, challenging for the Serie A title, opened the scoring in the Nou Camp against a home team that is scrambling just to finish in the top four in La Liga.

Polish midfielder Piotr Zielinski ran onto his own rebound to slam the ball home after 29 minutes.

Barcelona increasingly dominated possession but needed one of three penalties awarded for handball by VAR in Thursday’s early Europa League games to level.

Adama Traore’s cross hit Juan Jesus on the arm after 59 minutes.

Only friendlies

Ferran Torres converted the penalty with confidence for his first goal at Camp Nou for Barcelona but his cool deserted him as he hit two good chances over the bar as Barcelona dominated the closing stages.

In Saint Petersburg, all the goals came in the first 38 minutes as Real Betis, hoping to reach the final in their home city, won 3-2 against Zenit.

Zenit, who have played only friendlies since their last Russian League game on December 12, looked rusty at the start.

Guido Rodriguez outleapt and outmuscled the home defence to head in a free kick after eight minutes.

Ten minutes after that, the Zenit defence backed off as Willian Jose advanced from the half way line before drilling in a shot fro the edge of the penalty area.

Artem Dzyuba and Malcolm brought Zenit level with goals three minutes apart, but the home team then presented Betis with the winner in the 41st minute.

Goalkeeper Mikhail Gorchakov’s weak pass to Yaroslav Rakitskyy put the defender under pressure and Aitor Ruibal pounced to steal the ball and slide a pass to Andres Guardado who curled the ball into the goal.

In Tiraspol, Braga dominated possession and had more goal attempts, but Sheriff won 2-0.

In the 43rd minute, the home team had a goal ruled out for offside by VAR which also showed a handball by Andre Castro.

Luxembourg midfielder Sebastien Thill converted. With Braga pressing, Sheriff sealed victory on the counter-attack in the 83rd minute with a goal by their Adama Traore.

In the Conference League, Rapid Vienna scored twice in the first 16 minutes and despite playing the last 25 minutes with 10 men, beat Vitesse Arnhem 2-1.

Danes Midtjylland won 1-0 at home to Greek side PAOK, PSV Eindhoven won at home by the same score against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Another Traore, Ibrahim, scored the first goal for Slavia Prague as they won 3-2 in Istanbul against Fenerbahce.

Bayern avoid shock defeat

French winger Kingsley Coman spared his side’s blushes with a late equaliser as Bayern Munich laboured to a 1-1 draw away to Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League last-16 first leg.

Coman prodded the ball in at the far post in the last minute of normal time to cancel out Junior Adamu’s first-half opener and save Bayern from a first away defeat in the competition since 2017.

Bayern arrived in Austria looking to bounce back from their shock defeat to Bundesliga minnows Bochum on Saturday, but there were early signs of the same defensive wobbles that had plagued them at the weekend.

A mistake from Niklas Suele opened up a chance for Brenden Aaronson after just a few minutes, as Salzburg snapped at the heels of the Bayern backline.

The visitors also had chances at the other end but continued to look vulnerable and Salzburg reserved their lead on 21 minutes.

A soaring long ball from Mohamed Camara opened Bayern up on the counter-attack, and Adamu curled the ball in with an elegant first-time finish.

Adamu had come on as an early substitute for the injured Noah Okafor, and he and his fellow forwards continued to unsettle the Bayern defence before the break.

The hosts had a penalty appeal waved away just before half-time, before sitting back and soaking up pressure in the second half.

But despite dominating possession and running Salzburg’s full-backs ragged, Bayern toiled in their search for an equaliser.

As the pressure mounted towards the end of the game, Salzburg keeper Philipp Koehn denied Coman with a reflex save and neutralised a sharp counter-attack by snatching the ball from the feet of Leroy Sane.

A mistake from Sane almost allowed Salzburg to kill the game off 10 minutes from time, but Benjamin Pavard denied Adamu his second with a desperate block on the line.

But Bayern’s patience paid off when Coman finally broke the Austrian defences as the clock ticked down towards injury time.

A floating cross from Pavard was flicked on by Thomas Mueller to Coman, who slotted the ball past Koehn to avoid a second shock defeat for Bayern in the space of just five days.