Barcelona held to Europa League draw at home

Barcelona stumbled to a goalless draw with Galatasaray in their Europa League last-16 first leg at the Camp Nou, while Rangers cruised into a 3-0 lead in their tie against Red Star Belgrade.

Xavi Hernandez’s Barca, playing in Europe’s second-tier competition for the first time since 2004, dominated for long periods.

But it was their Turkish visitors who almost grabbed a lead ahead of the return game in Istanbul next week, with Bafetimbi Gomis only denied a winner by a VAR review for offside.

Memphis Depay, making his first start since December, forced Galatasaray goalkeeper Inaki Pena into two good first-half saves.

Jordi Alba, Ousmane Dembele and Frenkie de Jong all went close in the second period for Barcelona, but the hosts could not find a breakthrough.

“The feeling is bad,” Xavi admitted to Movistar+. “It’s not a good result, playing at home and dominating so much.”

“This is Europe, even if it’s the Europa League, and teams are there on their own merits.”

Rangers took a big step towards reaching the quarter-finals for the first time since losing the 2008 UEFA Cup final to Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men backed up their stunning win over Borussia Dortmund in the play-off round with another dominant first-leg performance against Red Star at Ibrox.

“It’s an unbelievable achievement,” Rangers captain Tavernier told BT Sport. “We are only halfway there but the boys were brilliant.”

Atalanta will take a lead to Germany next week after Luis Muriel scored twice in a 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen in Bergamo.

Leverkusen winger Moussa Diaby’s 63rd-minute strike, his eighth goal in seven games, kept the tie on a knife-edge.

Elsewhere, Abel Ruiz scored in the first minute as Braga beat Monaco 2-0 in Portugal, while Munir El Haddadi gave Sevilla a 1-0 home win over West Ham in the early kick-off. (AFP)