{"id":152600,"date":"2024-02-16T17:36:40","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/16\/loftus-cheek-inspires-milan-victory\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T17:36:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:36:40","slug":"loftus-cheek-inspires-milan-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/16\/loftus-cheek-inspires-milan-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Loftus-Cheek inspires Milan victory \u2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored twice as\u00a0<strong>AC Milan<\/strong>\u00a0triumphed 3-0 over\u00a0<strong>Rennes<\/strong>\u00a0in the first leg of their Europa League knockout round play-off.<\/p>\n<p>The England international continued his fine recent form in front of goal with strikes in the 32nd and 47th minutes, with Rafael Leao adding a third in the 52nd.<\/p>\n<p>Milan, who finished third in their Champions League group, have one foot in the last 16 ahead of next week\u2019s second leg.<\/p>\n<p>There was a big away win for Azerbaijani champions\u00a0<strong>Qarabag<\/strong>, who defeated\u00a0<strong>Braga<\/strong>\u00a04-2 in Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>Marko Jankovic opened the scoring for the visitors from the penalty spot midway through the first half but Simon Branza levelled matters just before the break.<\/p>\n<p>However, Qarabag were not to be denied and an Abdellah Zoubir brace and Juninho goal put them clear before Joao Moutinho grabbed a late second for Braga from the penalty spot.It was a better night for the other Portuguese sides, with<strong>\u00a0Sporting Lisbon<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Benfica<\/strong>\u00a0both winning.<\/p>\n<p>Sporting will fancy their chances of going through after beating\u00a0<strong>Young Boys\u00a0<\/strong>3-1 away from home.<\/p>\n<p>An own goal from Aurele Amenda was followed by a penalty from Viktor Gyokeres before the Swiss side pulled one back just before half-time through Filip Ugrinic.<\/p>\n<p>Goncalo Inacio restored the two-goal advantage three minutes after the restart and Young Boys finished with 10 men after Mohamed Ali Camara was sent off late on.<\/p>\n<p>Benfica still have work to do against<strong>\u00a0Toulouse\u00a0<\/strong>after snatching a late 2-1 victory courtesy of two Angel Di Maria penalties.<\/p>\n<p>The first was cancelled out by Mikkel Desler but the second came eight minutes into stoppage time after Christian Mawissa was shown a red card.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides finished with 10 men as\u00a0<strong>Galatasaray<\/strong>\u00a0defeated\u00a0<strong>Sparta Prague<\/strong>\u00a03-2 in Istanbul.<\/p>\n<p>Kerem Demirbay scored the only goal of the first half but Angelo Preciado levelled for Sparta two minutes after the break.<\/p>\n<p>Dries Mertens put Gala back ahead on the hour mark before Victor Nelsson was sent off.<\/p>\n<p>Jan Kuchta promptly equalised again only for Matej Rynes to pick up a second yellow card 10 minutes from time and Mauro Icardi to find a stoppage-time winner for the hosts.<\/p>\n<p>There was also a dramatic finish in Hamburg, where\u00a0<strong>Shakhtar Donetsk<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 continuing to play away from their war-torn homeland \u2014 drew 2-2 with\u00a0<strong>Marseille<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the French side ahead just after the hour but the lead only lasted for two minutes before Mykola Matviyenko equalised.<\/p>\n<p>And history repeated itself at the end of the match, with Iliman Ndiaye appearing to win it for the visitors only for Eguinaldo to level.<\/p>\n<p>Romelu Lukaku cancelled out Igor Paixao\u2019s opener as\u00a0<strong>Roma<\/strong>\u00a0claimed a 1-1 draw against\u00a0<strong>Feyenoord<\/strong>, while\u00a0<strong>Lens\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>Freiburg<\/strong>\u00a0finished goalless.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">LiveScore: Live Sport Updates<\/h3>\n<p><!-- AI CONTENT END 1 --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored twice as\u00a0AC Milan\u00a0triumphed 3-0 over\u00a0Rennes\u00a0in the first leg of their Europa League knockout round play-off. The England international continued his fine recent form in front of goal with strikes in the 32nd and 47th minutes, with Rafael Leao adding a third in the 52nd. Milan, who finished third in their Champions League [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Loftus-Cheek inspires Milan victory \u2013 - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/16\/loftus-cheek-inspires-milan-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Loftus-Cheek inspires Milan victory \u2013 - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored twice as\u00a0AC Milan\u00a0triumphed 3-0 over\u00a0Rennes\u00a0in the first leg of their Europa League knockout round play-off. 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