ZURICH: Napoli went down 3-1 at home to RB Leipzig, Arsenal and AC Milan enjoyed comfortable away wins, and Borussia Dortmund’s Michy Batshuayi scored twice to secure a 3-2 victory in the first leg of their Europa League last-32 ties on Thursday.

Serie A leaders Napoli went ahead against Leipzig but slumped to a 3-1 defeat after a Timo Werner brace, Arsenal overcame Sweden’s Ostersunds 3-0 helped by an own goal and Milan won by the same score against Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad.

Batshuayi took his tally to five goals in three games since joining Dortmund on loan from Chelsea, with his double against Atalanta hauling the Germans side back from 2-1 down after Josip Ilicic scored twice in five minutes for the Italians.

Mario Balotelli scored twice, but 10-man Nice blew a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at home to Lokomotiv Moscow as Manuel Fernandes hit a hat-trick, while Valere Germain struck two goals as Olympique de Marseille cruised past Braga 3-0.

Twice former winners Atletico Madrid recovered from an early fright to win 4-1 at FC Copenhagen as Saul Niguez, Kevin Gameiro, Antoine Griezmann and Vitolo shared the goals after Victor Fischer had put the Danish side in front.

Olympique Lyonnais, semi-finalists last season, impressively saw off Villarreal 3-1 with Nabil Fekir and Memphis Depay both finding the net.

FCSB, formerly Steaua Bucharest, beat Lazio 1-0 and a 78th-minute winner from Callum McGregor gave former European champions Celtic victory over Zenit St Petersburg by the same score at Parkhead.

Athletic Bilbao were lifted by two goals from 37-year-old striker Artiz Aduriz in a 3-1 win at Spartak Moscow, while their Basque rivals Real Socieded were held 2-2 at home by Salzburg and Viktoria Plzen drew 1-1 at Partizan Belgrade.

Greek police detained 18 people, believed to be supporters of Dynamo Kiev, for questioning after a bar in Athens was damaged ahead of the Ukrainian team’s 1-1 draw against AEK.

Sporting’s Bruno Fernandes, Gelson Martins and Seydou Doumbia scored in an eight-minute spell after halftime as they came from behind to win 3-1 on Astana’s artificial pitch in Kazakhstan where Marin Tomasov gave the hosts an early lead.

The roof was closed for the match with temperatures hovering around minus 20 Celsius outside.

Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri has made it clear that his priority lies in Serie A and a disappointingly sparse crowd turned up for the visit of Leipzig.

Adam Ounas gave Napoli the lead early in the second half, the Algerian’s first goal for the club, but Leipzig, a distant second to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, made the most of shoddy defending to turn the game around.

Werner levelled with an opportunist finish, then Bruma finished off a counter-attack and Werner added another in stoppage time as Napoli were again caught on the break.

BATSHUAYI DOUBLE

Batshuayi, who has been in sparkling form since joining from Chelsea on loan in the mid-season transfer window, helped Dortmund record their first victory in European competition this season.

Dortmund hadn’t won in eight previous appearances and only joined the Europa League after finishing third in their Champions League group.

“Michy is a real goal-scorer, it was a good move to bring him here,” Dortmund manager Peter Stoeger said. “Things are looking good. He is well liked, fully integrated and our goals and his personal goals align.”

Andre Schurrle put Dortmund ahead after 30 minutes at Signal Iduna Park, only for Ilicic to score twice for the Italian visitors in the 51st and 56th.

Batshuayi equalised in the 65th before grabbing the late winner to give the two-time runners-up a precious lead in the tie.

“The really disappointing thing is we threw away a game that we shouldn’t have lost,” admitted Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini. “After cradling the dream of winning, we suffered this disappointment in the final minutes. The second leg will not be easy.”

Left-back Nacho Monreal put Arsenal into an early lead at Ostersunds with his fifth goal of the season, tapping in after home goalkeeper Aly Keita inexplicably let the ball slip from his grasp.

The visitors were also gifted the second goal in the 24th minute as Ostersunds tried to play their way out of their own area, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan latching onto the loose ball and seeing a low cross diverted into his own net by defender Sotirios Papagiannopoulos.

Mkhitaryan then laid on the third goal for Mesut Ozil in the 58th minute before Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina saved a stoppage-time penalty by Tom Pettersson.

Winning the Europa League may be the best chance for Arsene Wenger’s team to return to the Champions League next season. Arsenal are sixth in the English Premier League, eight points behind Chelsea, which holds the fourth and last qualifying berth.

Like the Londoners, Milan’s best hope of Champions League football next season appears to be by winning the Europa League. Patrick Cutrone, a Ricardo Rodriguez penalty and Fabio Borini gave them an impressive win at Ludogorets.

Balotelli took his tally to 21 goals this term for Nice, where he is in his second season enjoying a new lease of life.

The maverick Italian slotted home after four minutes and converted a penalty in the 28th, sending Lokomotiv keeper Guilherme the wrong way after a Nemanja Pejcinovic handball.

Not to be outdone, Fernandes replied with a penalty before halftime and curled in a free kick to equalise in the 67th before completing his second Europa League hat-trick this term from Anton Miranchuk’s cross.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018