Swansea City 0-0 Napoli

It was a goaless draw as Napoli couldn’t do than their best against Garry monk’s men, Garry who has gotten a boost in morale with a fight to finish tie against Rafa Benitez side in his first European derby with the welish side.

The game at the Liberty stadium deadlocked to record a goal on the score sheet still kept the hope of the Swans to get a score draw at least in Italy in an away tie, for them to have a ticket for the quarter-finals.

Esbjerg 1-3 Fiorentina

A very straight forward win at the Blue Water Arena by the Viola saw the home side face their fans with the guilt of loss.

Three goals in 15 minutes by Matri, llilic and Aquilani was just what it took to get them ahead on a thursday night tie.
On-loan AC Milan man Alessandro Matri showed solid skill to score the opener but Danish forward Martin Pusic equalised a minute later, after the Viola failed to clear a dangerous cross.

Five minutes later, though, Josip Ilicic cooled the visiting fans’ nerves and Alberto Aquilani effectively killed off the tie with a penalty shortly before half-time.

Vicenzo Montella’s men saw out the second half with little fuss to leave them with a considerable advantage heading into the second leg at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

German striker and summer signing Mario Gomez was on the bench once again for Fiorentina, having made his comeback from a long spell out injured as a substitute at the weekend.

Pusic will have made Montella question how soon he might need a forward like Gomez on the pitch as he tested Viola shot-stopper Neto with four minutes gone.

But it was the visitors who got the goalscoring under way. Matri, on a half-season loan from Milan, controlled a pass perfectly before then burying his effort in the bottom corner.

Before Fiorentina even had a chance to settle following the celebrations, Pusic pounced on a deep cross to fire Esbjerg level with a low and accurate strike.

A breathless opening 15 minutes ended with Ilicic scoring from a threatening cross curled into the box.

The tempo died down in the subsequent five minutes and the next chance came with a third of the game gone, as Esbjerg midfielder Markus Levken’s cross narrowly avoided causing havoc and instead went out for a corner.

Just as the hosts were starting to rediscover their verve – with Peter Ankersen’s deflected effort just going wide of the post – Davidson Drobo Ampem brought down Ryder Matos just inside the area to concede a penalty.

Esbjerg’s players protested the foul was outside the box to no avail and ex-Liverpool midfielder Aquilani hit home to give the visitors a comfortable cushion.

Half-time came and went without further major incident, with Gomez’s arrival on the pitch for goalscorer Matri spicing up Montella’s tactics.

The former Bayern Munich forward very nearly made an instant impact upon his introduction, forcing a save from Martin Dubravka with a shot from the edge of the 18-yard box.

As the second half wound down to its predictable conclusion, Borja Valero should really have given Fiorentina an additional away goal but he screwed a rebounded Ilicic shot over the crossbar, wasting all of Matos’ excellent work in creating the chance.

It did not matter with regards to the result, however, and Montella’s men can consider themselves as having one foot in the final after an impressive display at the Blue Water Arena.

Juventus 2-0 Trabzonspor

Biaconeri edged pass their visitors via Osvaldo and Pogba.

With a first-leg home advantage Juventus claimed the victory of the day as on-loan southampton striker netted the opener in Turin in the 16th minute of the first-half and Pogba doubled the lead at injury time to see the visitors disapointed with their effort.

Olcan Adin controversially had a goal disallowed midway through the second half and Juventus took full advantage, with Paul Pogba firing home in injury time to leave the visitors crestfallen.

The home side made a bright opening and orchestrated the first opportunity after five minutes when Mauricio Isla picked out Carlos Tevez on the edge of the box but the Argentine scooped well over the crossbar.

Tevez also played his own part in the attack with a nice assist to Osvaldo and was also an incredible architect towards the pattern of play and the long night for the visitor was called off at 90 minutes and left the Bianconeri rejoice home.

Dnipro 1-0 Tottenham

A frustrating result for the Spurs as the lost to a slim 1-0 to a Tim sherwwod side in Ukraine.
It was a tricky encounter which Yevhen Konoplyanka scored from the penalty spot late on to give Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk a 1-0 advantage over Tottenham in the first leg of their round-of-32 Europa League tie at the Dnipro-Arena in Ukraine.
Matheus was fouled by Jan Vertonghen with 10 minutes to the whistle.

Liverpool’s January target Konoplyanka beat Brad Friedel in the Spurs net to leave Tim Sherwood’s side with an uphill battle in the return leg at White Hart Lane.
It was sweet revenge for Dnipro coach Juande Ramos, who delivered Tottenham’s last trophy by winning the League Cup in 2008, only to be sacked the following season with the club bottom of the Premier League table. 

The result leaves the Premier League side with work to do but it could have been a different story had Roberto Soldado not spurned a golden chance when he missed an open goal 10 minutes into the second half.

By the end, though, Sherwood was thankful to depart with his side trailing by only the solitary goal as Roman Zozulya was denied by the frame of the goal in stoppage time. 

Andros Townsend made his first start for Tottenham since mid-December after recovering from a hamstring injury, while 16-year-old Josh Onomah took his place on the bench for the first time.

On a dry and rutted surface, the visitors created the first half-opening of the game in the 13th minute after a minute’s silence was observed in respect to those who lost their lives during the recent political unrest in Ukraine, Soldado seeing his near-post header blocked by Dnipro goalkeeper Denis Boyko.

Dnipro ought to have gone ahead 12 minutes later when Matheus was played clean through on goal, but Friedel spread himself to block the Brazilian’s effort low down to his left, before thwarting the striker again two minutes later when he tried his luck from 25 yards.

Ten minutes before the break, Ivan Strinic was booked for hauling down Paulinho on the edge of the area, with Tottenham arguing that he should have been sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity. Townsend sent the resulting free-kick a yard wide.

Soldado wasted a glorious chance to break the deadlock in the 56th minute when, with the goal at his mercy, the Spaniard somehow cleared the crossbar from four yards after being picked out by Paulinho’s ball across the box.

Sherwood introduced Christian Eriksen off the bench in place of Townsend in the 64th minute and the Denmark international almost made a telling contribution with his first touch, but his slotted finish beyond Boyko was ruled out for offside.

Friedel had to be alert three minutes later to parry Matheus’ rasping effort from the edge of the box as the game became more stretched.

Soldado saw a volley blocked before Friedel was involved again, rushing from his line to deny Giuliano after the Brazilian had jinked his way through the Tottenham defence.

The deadlock was eventually broken when Vertonghen brought down Matheus and Konoplyanka coolly tucked home the penalty in off the left-hand post to give Dnipro a crucial first-leg advantage.

Tottenham pushed hard for an equaliser as Paulinho forced a ricochet that struck the base of the post before substitute Harry Kane failed to get a telling connection with the goal at his mercy.

It could have been so much worse for Tottenham,  though, as Zozulya sent a header against the post in stoppage time.

Dynamo Kiev 0-2 Valencia

Valencia took the victory of the day with Vargas and Feghouli striking two late goals past the home side in the round of 32.

Eduardo Vargas and Marouane Feghouli struck late on to allow Valencia to defeat a struggling Dynamo Kiev side 2-0 in Thursday’s Europa League last-32 first-leg clash.

Los che having been on five-match unbeaten streak in La Liga, may have hoped that playing their away tie in Cyprus due to political tensions in Ukraine could have worked in their favour but took until the 79th minute to break through the dogged defences of Oleh Blokhin’s team, with a second coming in stoppage-time.

In fact, the opening 20 minutes saw Dynamo Kiev look the more likely to take the lead as Nigerian forward Brown Ideye headed marginally wide before the referee called play back for a free kick to the visitors.

At the other end, Jonas had the best chance of the match as of 26 minutes when Jeremy Mathieu looped a cross to his feet, but Ukrainian goalkeeper Aleksandr Shovkovsky came off his line to swipe the ball away from the Brazilian.

Juan Antonio Pizzi’s men continued to exploit the wing for their chances as they went into the ascendancy in the final 20 minutes of the first half, with Jonas constantly lingering on the last man in search of a cross that he could latch on to.

Immediately after half-time, however, Jeremain Lens went closer than anyone in 48 minutes had by connecting with Danilo Silva’s cross, but his shot cannoned over the crossbar.

The next 15 minutes were characterised by a stop-start nature as defender Domagoj Vida then Shovkovsky needed treatment for injuries, with the latter forced off.

Two chances in quick succession nearly saw los Che take the lead as the game burst into life with 14 minutes on the clock, with substitute goalkeeper Aleksandr Rybka doing excellently to deny Dani Parejo then Seydou Keita from close range.