Europa League: Wolves Devour Parakeets In Series Opener; Sporting CP, Nerazzurri,Leverkusen, Gunners,Roma, 'Gers Also Post Game-One Wins

The knockout stage of the Europa League opened on Thursday with 16 games in the Round of 32.

At Lisbon:

Andraz Sporar scored the winning goal in the 44th minute as Sporting CP downed visiting Istanbul Basaksehir 3-1 in the opening contest of their two-game series.

At Getafe, Spain:

Deyverson (38') and Kenedy (90'+3) each scored once as Getafe blanked visiting Ajax Amsterdam 2-0 in their series opener.

At Copenhagen, Denmark:

Dame N'Doye's equalizer in the 52nd minute enabled FC Copenhagen to salvage a series-opening 1-1 home draw with Celtic.

Odsonne Edouard scored for the Bhoys in the 22nd minute.

At Cluj-Napoca, Romania:

Youssef En-Nesyri's goal in the 82nd minute carried Sevilla to a series-opening 1-1 road draw with CFR Cluj.

Ciprian Deac converted a penalty kick in the 59th minute for the hosts' goal.

At Bruges, Belgium:

Anthony Martial's goal in the 36th minute lifted Manchester United to a 1-1 series-opening road deadlock with Club Brugge.

Emmanuel Bonaventure scored for the hosts at 15 minutes. 

At Razgrad, Bulgaria:

Christian Eriksen (71') and Romelu Lukaku (PK-90'+5) produced the goals that carried Inter Milan to a 2-0 game-one road victory over Ludogorets Razgrad.

At Kharkiv, Ukraine (due to war-like conditions in eastern Ukraine):

Viktor Kovalenko scored the game winner in the 72nd minute as Shakhtar Donetsk held off visiting SL Benfica 2-1 in their series-opening contest.

At Frankfurt, Germany:

Daichi Kamada produced a hat trick (12', 43', 53') as Eintracht Frankfurt dominated visiting FC Red Bull Salzburg 4-1 in their series opener.

At Wolverhampton, England:

Diogo Jota produced a hat trick (15', 67', 81') as Wolverhampton Wanderers opened their series with Espanyol by demolishing the visiting Parakeets 4-0.

At Leverkusen, Germany:

Kai Havertz converted a penalty kick in the 57th minute for the game-winning goal as Bayer Leverkusen defeated visiting FC Porto 2-1 in their series opener.

At Nicosia, Cyprus:

Raoul Petretta (16'), Valentin Stocker (53'), and Arthur Cabral (66') each scored once as FC Basel all but assured themselves of a berth in the Round of 16 after their series-opening 3-0 road domination of APOEL FC.

At Piraeus, Greece:

Alexandre Lacazette scored the only goal of the match in the 81st minute as Arsenal knocked off Olympiacos 1-0 on the road in game one.

At The Hague, Netherlands:

Teun Koopmeiners's equalizer in the 86th minute---a product of his successfully-converted penalty kick---enabled AZ Alkmaar to salvage a series-opening 1-1 draw with visiting LASK.

Marko Raguz scored for the Austrian club in the 26th minute.

At Wolfsburg, Germany:

Isaac Kiese Thelin's own goal in the 62nd minute proved decisive as VfL Wolfsburg took the measure of visiting Malmo FF 2-1 in their series-opening match.

At Rome:

Carles Perez scored the only goal of the game in the 13th minute as AS Roma defeated visiting KAA Gent 1-0 in game one of their two-match series.

At Glasgow, Scotland:

Ianis Hagi scored twice (67', 82') and Joe Aribo once (75') as Rangers battled back from down two goals to upend visiting SC Braga 3-2 in their series opening contest.