UEFA Europa League: Rangers hold Benfica to a 2-2 draw, Leverkusen late show avoids shock at Qarabag

Benfica twice had to come from behind to deny Rangers a famous win in Lisbon as the first leg of their UEFA Europa League last-16 tie ended 2-2, while Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen needed a late rally to maintain their unbeaten season in a 2-2 draw at Qarabag.

Rangers could hardly have wished for a better start at Estadio da Luz as Mohamed Diomande’s hanging cross was headed in by Tom Lawrence at the far post just seven minutes in.

The Glasgow giants were coping ably with the Benfica threat until a VAR intervention in stoppage time at the end of the first half awarded the home side a penalty as John Souttar was harshly penalised for handball.

Angel Di Maria showed his experience with a cool head to slot past Jack Butland from the spot, but Benfica were only on level terms for a few minutes. Fabio Silva’s low cross-cum-shot fell perfectly in into the path of Dujon Sterling to tap in his first Rangers goal.

Benfica pilled on the pressure after the break but they needed a self-inflicted wound by the visitors to go to Ibrox next week on level terms. Connor Goldson met a free-kick into his own box with a bullet header that flew past Butland into his own goal.

Di Maria sliced wide with a glorious chance to win the game, but Rangers clung on to leave their hopes of repeating a run to the final two years ago very much alive.

The sides meet again at Ibrox next Thursday, live on TNT Sports.

Leverkusen are cruising towards their first Bundesliga title, 10 points clear of Bayern Munich at the top of the table.

But the Germans were given huge fright in Azerbaijan as Qarabag looked to make Alonso, who is being pursued by both Bayern and Liverpool for next season, pay for resting a number of his key players.

Yassine Benzia drilled Juninho’s low cross into the roof of the net to give the home side the lead midway through the first half.

Qarabag were dreaming in stoppage time at the end of the first half thanks to a sublime piece of skill by Juninho to bounce the ball over Leverkusen goalkeeper Matej Kovar and slot into an unguarded net.

Alonso responded after the break as Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka and Patrik Schick were sent on as substitutes in a rescue mission.

And the visitors just got away with it to extend their unbeaten record in all competitions this season to 35 games.

Wirtz halved Leverkusen’s deficit with a sumptuous dink over Andrey Lunev 20 minutes from time.

Schick then headed in from Robert Andrich's cross to level in stoppage time.

AC Milan are well on course for the last eight despite making hard work of seeing off 10-man Slavia Prague 4-2 at the San Siro.

The visitors had to play for over an hour with 10 men after Malick Diouf was dismissed for a rash challenge on Christian Pulisic.

Olivier Giroud broke the deadlock, but David Doudera’s stunning volley brought Slavia level.

Two goals from corners just before half-time by Tijjani Reijnders and the in-form Ruben Loftus-Cheek looked to have decisively swung the tie the way of the seven-time European champions.

However, Slavia hit back again through Ivan Schranz and are not out of it despite the ever-dangerous Rafael Leao teeing up Pulisic to restore Milan’s two-goal cushion.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang extended his lead as the competition's top goalscorer with a double in Marseille’s 4-0 thrashing of Villarreal.

The French side were already well in command through Jordan Veretout and Yerson Mosquera’s own goal before Aubameyang took over with goals either side of half-time.

The former Arsenal striker now has 21 goals for the season, nine of which have come in the Europa League.

In the UEFA Europa Conference League, Fiorentina struck in the 95th minute through Antonin Barak to beat Maccabi Haifa 4-3 in the match of the night. Last season’s finalists twice trailed in Hungary, where the game was being played. However, M’Bala Nzola, Lucas Beltran and Rolando Mandragora were also on target for the Viola on what was another good night for Italy’s hopes of securing a fifth Champions League place next season.

Robbie Keane’s Maccabi Tel Aviv stormed towards the quarter-finals with a 4-1 thrashing of Olympiakos in Greece.

The visitors were 2-0 up inside 10 minutes as captain Eran Zahavi and Ido Shahar struck.

Olympiakos got to the last 16 on the back of Ayoub El Kaabi’s goals, but his 23rd of the season was a mere consolation this time.

Zahavi restored Maccabi’s two-goal cushion before Dor Peretz rounded off the scoring.

Lille also have one foot in the last eight after a 3-0 win at Sturm Graz. Jonathan David scored twice before former Manchester United midfielder Angel Gomes teed up Edon Zhegrova for the third.

Fenerbahce are practically in the quarters after a 3-0 win at Union Saint Gilloise with Michy Batshuayi and Dusan Tadic among the goalscorers for the Turkish side.

Molde continue to be one of the surprise packages of the competition as they beat Club Brugge 2-1 in Norway thanks to a 92nd-minute winner from Fredrik Gulbrandsen.

Dinamo Zagreb beat PAOK 2-0, while Servette and Viktoria Plzen played out a 0-0 draw in Switzerland.

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