Valencia take control of play-off tie with Monaco

Sofiane Feghouli struck late on to provide Valencia with a two-goal advantage in their Champions League play-off against Monaco.

Feghouli has been in talks about a move to Fenerbahce recently, but he was the hero at the Mestalla last night, initially for setting up Rodrigo for Valencia’s first in the fourth minute.

Monaco hit back just after the break through Mario Pasalic, but Dani Parejo scored his first Champions League goal to give Valencia the lead again before Feghouli made it 3-1 in the 86th minute.

The two teams will meet again at Stade Louis II on Tuesday.

Eran Zahavi scored in the sixth minute added on to give Maccabi Tel Aviv a 2-2 draw at Basle.

Zahavi put Maccabi ahead in the first half, but Matias Delgado was on hand to level from the spot.

The Swiss looked to have claimed victory when Breel Embolo made it 2-1 in the 88th minute, but deep into injury time skipper Zahavi headed home to give his team a second valuable away goal.

Dinamo Zagreb had to come from behind to claim a 2-1 victory at the home of Albanian underdogs Skenderbeu Korce.

Skenderbeu, who are looking to become the first Albanian side to reach the group stages of the Champions League, took the lead through captain Blendi Shkembi, who curled in a stunning free-kick from the edge of the box.

But the visitors equalised through El Arabi Hilal Soudani and then sealed victory thanks to a second- half stoppage-time winner from Josip Pivaric.

Shakhtar Donetsk put themselves on track for a sixth successive Champions League group stage appearance thanks to a 1-0 win at Rapid Vienna in yesterday’s other fixture.

Brazilian midfielder Marlos scored the only goal of the game in the 44th minute.

The second legs of all the play-off ties will be played next Tuesday and Wednesday with the draw for the lucrative group stages to be made in Nyon on the Thursday.