Europa League Playoff Round: Wolves, Bhoys, Parakeets, Feyenoord, Malmo, Copenhagen, PSV, Gent, Linfield Take Series Openers

The Europa League's playoff round commenced on Thursday with 21 games.

Champions Path:

At Marijampole, Lithuania:

The opening match between FK Suduva and visiting Ferencvaros ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

At Copenhagen, Denmark:

Viktor Fischer (18'), Pieros Sotiriou (PK-62'), and Mohammed Daramy (90'+3) each scored once as FC Copenhagen defeated visiting Riga 3-1 in their series opener.

At Glasgow, Scotland:

James Forrest (48') and Odsonne Edouard (73') delivered the scoring as Celtic blanked visiting AIK Solna 2-0 in their series-opening match.

At Yerevan, Armenia:

Ilja Antonov scored the stoppage-time game winner (90'+3) as Ararat-Armenia defeated visiting F91 Dudelange 2-1 in their series-opening contest.

At Razgrad, Bulgaria:

NK Maribor gained a series-opening 0-0 road deadlock with Ludogorets Razgrad.

At Belfast, Northern Ireland:

Shayne Lavery scored twice (45'+1, 75') as Linfield held off visiting Qarabag 3-2 in the opening match of their two-game series.

At Bratislava, Slovakia:

Leo Abena came through for Slovan Bratislava as his goal at the death (90'+4) carried the hosts to a 1-0 series-opening victory over PAOK FC.

At Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan:

Marin Tomasov (23'), Yuriy Logvinenko (44'), and Runar Mar Sigurjonsson (PK-52') each produced a tally as Astana dominated visiting FC BATE Borisov 3-0 in game one.



Main Path:

At Turin, Italy:

Raul Jimenez scored the game winner in the 72nd minute as Wolverhampton Wanderers held off hosts Torino 3-2 in their series opener.

At Warsaw, Poland:

Legia Warsaw and visiting Rangers opened their series with a 0-0 stalemate.

At Giurgiu, Romania:

The series-opening contest between Steaua Bucharest and visiting Vitoria de Guimaraes resulted in a 0-0 draw.

At Eindhoven, Netherlands:

Mohammed Ihattaren (47'), Cody Gakpo (56'), and Denzel Dumfries (61') each scored once as PSV Eindhoven dominated visiting Apollon Limassol 3-0 in their series-opening match.

At Athens:

Caleb Ekuban produced a hat trick (29', 44', 70') as Trabzonspor took the measure of AEK Athens 3-1 on the road in their series-opening match.

At Rotterdam, Netherlands:

Leroy Fer scored twice (56', 78') as Feyenoord Rotterdam opened their series with Hapoel Be'er Sheva by dominating the visiting Israeli club 3-0.

At Ghent, Belgium:

Laurent Depoitre scored twice (57', 71') as KAA Gent upended visiting Rijeka 2-1 in their series opener.

At Barcelona:

Facundo Ferreyra (58'), Javi Lopez (79'), and Matias Vargas Martin (81') each scored once as Espanyol overcame visiting Zorya Luhansk 3-1 in their series-opening contest.

At Belgrade, Serbia:

Zoran Tosic scored the game winner in the 84th minute as Partizan Belgrade topped visiting  Molde FK 2-1 in game one.

At Braga, Portugal:

Ricardo Horta produced the long goal of the match in the 74th minute as SC Braga defeated visiting Spartak Moscow 1-0 in game one.

At Malmo, Sweden:

Markus Rosenberg (36'), Rasmus Bengtsson (40'), and Carl Lewicki (47') each scored once as Malmo FF dominated visiting Bnei Yehuda 3-0 in their series opener.

At Strasbourg, France:

Lucien Zohi scored the only goal of the match in the 33rd minute as Strasbourg knocked off visiting Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 in their series-opening contest.

At Enschede, Netherlands:

Myron Boadu's equalizer in the 82nd minute enabled AZ Alkmaar to salvage a series-opening 1-1 home deadlock with ten-man Antwerp.

Dylan Batubinsika scored for the Belgian club in the 38th minute.