Europa League: Spurs Drop Series Opener With Benfica At Home

The Europa League's Round-of-16 commenced with the opening contest of each of the eight two-game series.

At Sofia, Bulgaria:

Antonio Barragan (5'), Federico Cartabia (34'), and Philippe Senderos (59') each delivered a goal as Valencia found themselves with one foot in the quarterfinal round after their series-opening 3-0 road beatdown of Ludogorets Razgrad.

At Porto, Portugal:

Jackson Martinez scored the only goal of the match in the 57th minute as FC Porto took the opening contest of their series with Napoli 1-0.

At Basel, Switzerland:

FC Red Bull Salzburg held homestanding FC Basel to a 0-0 stalemate to open their two-game series.

At Alkmaar, Netherlands:

Aron Johannsson's successful penalty kick in the 29th minute provided all the scoring in AZ Alkmaar's game-one 1-0 home win over FC Anzhi Makhachkala.

At Lyon, France:

Gueida Fofana scored twice (12', 70') as Lyon dominated visiting FC Viktoria Plzen 4-1 in their series opener.

At Seville, Spain:

In the opening match of an all-Seville series, Leo Baptistao (15') and the ironically-named Salva Sevilla (77') each scored a goal as Real Betis took game one against Sevilla 2-0 on the road.

At London:

Luisao scored twice in the second half (58', 84') as SL Benfica took the opening match of their two-game series with Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 on the road.

At Turin, Italy:

In the opening contest of an all-Italian series, Mario Gomez delivered the equalizer in the 79th minute as Fiorentina gained a series-opening 1-1 draw with Juventus.  Arturo Vidal scored for the Old Lady in the third minute.