Valencia’s Sofiane Feghouli struck late to provide his team with a two-goal advantage in their Champions League play-off against Monaco.
Feghouli has been in talks about a move to Fenerbahce but he was the hero at the Mestalla, initially for setting up Rodrigo for Valencia’s first in the fourth minute. Monaco hit back just after the interval through Mario Pasalic but Dani Parejo scored his first Champions League goal to give Valencia the lead again before Feghouli made it 3-1 in the 86th minute.
“We started strong, but it was normal that after 15 to 20 minutes we couldn’t keep up the pace,” Feghouli said. “But we controlled the match and we should feel confident for the return leg.”
Eran Zahavi scored in the sixth minute of added time to give Maccabi Tel Aviv a 2-2 draw at Basel.
Zahavi put Maccabi ahead in the first half but Matias Delgado was on hand to level from the spot. The Swiss side looked to have claimed victory when Breel Embolo made it 2-1 in the 88th minute, but deep into injury time Zahavi, the captain, headed home to give his team a second valuable away goal.
Dinamo Zagreb had to come from behind to claim a 2-1 victory at the home of the Albanian club Skenderbeu Korce.
Skenderbeu, who are looking to become the first Albanian side to reach the Champions League group stages, took the lead through their captain, Bledi Shkembi, who curled in a stunning free-kick from the edge of the box.
But the visitors equalised through El Arabi Hilal Soudani and then sealed victory thanks to a second-half stoppage-time winner from Josip Pivaric.
Shakhtar Donetsk put themselves on track for a sixth successive Champions League group stage appearance thanks to a 1-0 win at Rapid Vienna. The Brazilian midfielder Marlos scored the only goal of the game in the 44th minute. “I am happy with this win,” the Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu said. “Rapid was physically strong but we dominated the first half. They played well in the second half. We know this is the Champions League so we didn’t want to take any risks.”
Last season, Shakhtar were beaten by Bayern Munich in the round of 16 while Rapid are seeking their third appearance in the group stage and first in 10 years. “We played a good game but luck wasn’t on our side,” the Rapid coach, Zoran Barisic, said. “We could have taken the lead, and we could have scored the equaliser. We’ll travel to Ukraine to win. I think my team can do that.”
