Roma secured a 2-0 first leg victory over Real Sociedad courtesy of goals from Stephan El Shaarawy & Marash Kumbulla.

Mourinho's Roma were good value for their victory against Real Sociedad with Stephan El Shaarawy sending the hosts ahead in the Italian capital from close range after a fine run and cross by Tammy Abraham.

Take Kubo struck the post at the other end as the Basques battled back in search of an equaliser.

Roma struck again towards the end as Albanian defender Marash Kumbulla powered home a header from Paulo Dybala's inswinging corner, giving them a strong advantage to take to San Sebastian.

Bundesliga surprise package Union Berlin snatched a 3-3 draw against Belgian side Royale Union SG, while Bayer Leverkusen beat Ferencvaros 2-0 at home.

In the UEFA Conference League, Michael Antonio hit two first half goals to earn West Ham a 2-0 win at EK Larnaca, while Villarreal shared a 1-1 draw with Anderlect.

Manu Trigueros put the Spanish visitors in front but Anders Dreyer levelled early in the second half.

Highlights: Juventus 1-0 SC Freiburg

If one were to come up with a takeaway to Thursday night’s first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 tie between Juventus and Freiburg, the first and most obvious would overwhelmingly positive: Juve won.

The second thought is less positive: Juventus left a couple of goals on the field.

Despite being an old club — they were founded only seven years after Juventus was, in 1904 — Freiburg are relative newcomers to high-level European football. They didn’t make it to the Bundesliga for the first time until the 1990s. They’ve never played in the

Champions League, and until Thursday the club’s only experience in a European knockout tie had come in 1995-96 and 2001-02, when the then-UEFA Cup was still a straight knockout competition. They had never been beyond the round of 32.

That gulf in experience was evident. Juve thoroughly outclassed their German visitors. They only allowed them a single shot the entire night — two if you count the goal that was rightly disallowed just after the hour mark — and that came from a direct free kick. Juve put up 20 shots of their own — the first time they’ve hit that number in quite some time — and put a good amount of pressure on the Freiburg goal.

Unfortunately, they left the field with the feeling that they could have done more. While the winning goal came from a fantastic cross and header, it was one of only five shots on target. Had the Bianconeri been more clinical, they could be carrying two or three goals back to Germany next week as opposed to the slender 1-0 lead that they secured by the end of the night at the J Stadium.

It remains to be seen whether they will be made to rue those missed opportunities, but overall a win is never a bad thing — especially considering that this was the first time Juve had won the first leg of a European knockout tie since the Champions League semifinal against Monaco in 2017.

There was some late drama when it was reported Thursday morning that Massimiliano Allegri had dropped Paul Pogba for the game after he was late to a team meeting on Wednesday night. Pogba joined the injured Mattia De Sciglio, Arkadiusz Milik, and Kaio Jorge on the unavailable list.

Without the option of starting Pogba, Allegri returned to his 3-5-1-1 setup, making only one change. Wojciech Szczesny started in goal. Alex Sandro had come off injured over the weekend against Roma, but passed a fitness test to join countrymen Danilo and Bremer in the back three. Juan Cuadrado and Filip Kostic manned the wing-back spots, while Fabio Miretti was given his first start since coming back from his ankle injury, joining Manuel Locatelli and Adrien Rabiot in midfield.

Angel Di Maria took up his usual role playing behind Dusan Vlahovic up front.

Man Utd bounce back to beat Betis

Manchester United bounced back from a historic thrashing by Liverpool to beat Real Betis 4-1.

Manchester United bounced back from a historic thrashing by Liverpool to beat Real Betis 4-1 in the first leg of their Europa League last 16 tie, while a 2-2 draw away to Sporting Lisbon gave Arsenal work to do to reach the quarter-finals.

United equalled their heaviest ever defeat and worst since 1931 in losing 7-0 at Anfield on Sunday.

Erik ten Hag responded by naming the same starting line-up and was rewarded with a return to form.

Marcus Rashford smashed United into an early lead with his 26th goal of the season, but Betis levelled against the run of play when Ayoze Perez fired into the far corner.

The visitors could even have gone in front before half-time when Perez's deflected cross came back off the post.

But it was two of United's most fiercely criticised stars in recent days who made the difference after the break.

Antony curled a brilliant shot into the top corner before Bruno Fernandes, who Ten Hag named again as captain, headed in Luke Shaw's corner.

Wout Weghorst then netted just his second goal in 15 appearances for United by pouncing from close range six minutes from time.

Arsenal held to 2-2 draw by Sporting CP

Arsenal were held to a 2-2 draw by Sporting Lisbon in the first leg at the José Alvalade Stadium.

Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon could not be divided in an entertaining 2-2 draw in their Europa League last 16 first leg clash in Lisbon on Thursday.

Hidemasa Morita's own goal sent the Premier League leaders back to London with honours even, after Goncalo Inacio and Paulinho's goals helped Sporting recover from William Saliba's opener.

Elsewhere Jose Mourinho's Roma earned a comfortable 2-0 win at home against Real Sociedad to put one foot into the quarter-finals.

Mikel Arteta handed Reiss Nelson a start on the left of the attack after his showstopping strike salvaged Arsenal a dramatic comeback victory over Bournemouth last weekend to keep them top of the Premier League.

The Arsenal coach also gave Polish defender Jakub Kiwior his debut after his January arrival from Spezia.

It was his centre-back partner William Saliba who headed home from Fabio Vieira's corner to put Arsenal ahead after 22 minutes at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon.

Former Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates was booked during an argument in the aftermath of the goal, meaning he is suspended for the second leg next week.

Sporting equalised shortly after in near identical fashion, with Inacio heading home Marcus Edwards' corner.

Former Tottenham midfielder Edwards then forced a fine save from Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner, as the hosts stepped up a gear.

Sporting goalkeeper Antonio Adan did well to deny Gabriel Martinelli early in the second half, and his team capitalised to take the lead.
Edwards' clever reverse pass split open Arsenal's defence and after Pedro Goncalves' shot was deflected, Paulinho reacted quickest to finish.

Martinelli nearly equalised with a brilliant run from halfway but, after rounding Adan, was foiled by a last-gasp Jeremiah St. Juste slide tackle.

Arsenal were level just after the hour mark, though, when Granit Xhaka tried to find Martinelli but Morita deflected the ball into his own net to leave the game on a knife-edge in the second leg.