Valencia beat Monaco 3-1 in Champions League play-off Last Updated: 19/08/15 10:55pm
Valencia made light of Nicolas Otamendi's absence to beat Monaco 3-1 in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie. Centre-back Otamendi was omitted from Valencia's squad entirely, with the Argentine understood to be close to a move to the Premier League with Manchester City.
Valencia took the lead in the fourth minute when Sofiane Feghouli played in Rodrigo Moreno to open the scoring, although that proved to be the only goal of the opening half.
Monaco were good value for their equaliser when it came on 49 minutes, Mario Pasalic the man celebrating after a sloppy defensive clearance fell at his feet.
Parity lasted only 10 minutes with Dani Parejo steering in a cross and Feghouli ensured Valencia would take a two-goal lead to Monaco with a crucial third four minutes from time.
Shakhtar Donetsk came away from Austria with a 1-0 advantage in their tie with Rapid Vienna.
Defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy set up Marlos for the only goal in the 44th minute, the forward wrong-footing Rapid's Stephan Auer before beating goalkeeper Jan Novota with a low diagonal shot.
Rapid pressed for a goal, dominating long spells of the second period, but they often found the slippery conditions too tricky and struggled to get shots away.
Eran Zahavi scored the equaliser six minutes into added-time for Maccabi Tel-Aviv as they claimed a 2-2 draw with FC Basel in Switzerland.
Zahavi headed home a Birkir Bjarnason corner to boost the Israeli champions' hopes of a place in the group stage against a team that has proved tough to beat in recent Champions League campaigns.
He had also put Maccabi in front on 31 minutes, but their lead did not even last until half-time, with Tal Ben Haim fouling Matias Delgado in the box and giving the Basel captain the chance to level from the penalty spot.
The score remained level until two minutes from the end of normal time, when Tottenham target Breel Embolo ran through the Maccabi defence and slid a shot past 'keeper Juan Pablo.
But that lead would not hold up either, and Zahavi's last-gasp goal gives Maccabi a decent chance of reaching the group stage for the first time since the 2004-05 season.
And a late goal from Josip Pivaric earned Dinamo Zagreb a 2-1 lead in their clash with Albanian champions Skenderbeu Korce, who are in the play-off round for the first time in their history.
Pivaric's curling effort three minutes into added time earned Zagreb an away success and capped a fine second-half comeback.
Skenderbeu captain Blendi Shkembi put his side in front in the 37th minute but, after a spell of pressure, Dinamo levelled on 66 through El Arbi Hillel Soudani.
Champions League play-off round first leg results (Wednesday):
Basel 2-2 Maccabi Tel-Aviv Celtic 3-2 Malmo Rapid Vienna 0-1 Shakhtar Donetsk Skenderbeu 1-2 Dinamo Kiev Valencia 3-1 Monaco http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11945/9957232/valencia-beat-monaco-3-1-in-champions-league-play-off [ 此帖被羅力亞在2015-08-26 08:40重新編輯 ]
