MILAN – Romelu Lukaku shouldered in the equaliser to earn AS Roma a 1-1 draw away to Feyenoord in the first leg of their Europa League play-off in Rotterdam on Feb 15.
Igor Paixao headed the hosts in front in first-half added time, but Lukaku met a cross with his shoulder in the 67th minute to send the ball looping into the net.
Lukaku told uefa.com: “The defender was trying to hold me off but I knew I was much stronger than him, so I got to the ball. When the chance comes, you have to score – and that’s what we did.”
The Belgian celebrated his 21st goal in his last 18 Europa League appearances by pointing two fingers to his head and covering his mouth with his other hand, reportedly in reference to the growing unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his parents are from.
He added that Roma will be waiting to complete the job in the Feb 22 return leg in Rome.
Elsewhere, a pair of Argentinian veterans struck late to give their teams victories.
Mauro Icardi fired home from the edge of the penalty area in added time to earn Galatasaray a 3-2 home win over Sparta Prague after the Czech team had twice fought back from a goal down.
In Lisbon, Angel di Maria converted his second penalty of the game eight minutes into added time to give Benfica a 2-1 victory over Toulouse.
AC Milan beat Rennes 3-0 with English midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek scoring two headed goals and Rafael Leao rounding off a dominant home display after a neat exchange with Theo Hernandez.
“I’ve been working on this, getting to the right position to score and it’s going well now,” said Loftus-Cheek. “Tonight was incredible at home.”
In Hamburg, Iliman Ndiaye thought he had bagged a last-minute winner for Marseille but Eguinaldo’s stoppage-time strike rescued a point for Ukrainian exiles Shakhtar Donetsk in a 2-2 draw.
Marseille, whose only victory in 2024 was against fifth-tier Thionville in the French Cup, twice seemed briefly poised to break that barren streak.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the French side ahead after 64 minutes with a half-volley, but four minutes later Mykola Matviyenko fired home after Marseille failed to clear a free kick.
Aubameyang then crossed for Ndiaye to restore the lead with time running out. This time it lasted three minutes before Eguinaldo headed powerfully home.
“We are disappointed as we led twice, but allowed victory to slip away,” said Marseille defender Samuel Gigot.
Shakhtar defender Yukhym Konoplya said they were also unhappy with the result, adding: “I think we deserved to win with our display.”
The second leg of the play-offs take place next week, with 16 teams battling for the right to join the eight seeds who have already qualified for the last 16. AFP
