Benfica edge Galatasaray 2-1 in Europa League

By Fatih Erel</p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkey's Galatasaray were edged Thursday by Portugal's Benfica 2-1 in the first-leg match of the round of 32 in UEFA Europa League.</p> <p>In the match at Turk Telekom Stadium in Istanbul, the Benfica gained advantage before the second leg at home.</p> <p>At the second-highest level football competition in Europe, a penalty in the 26th minute was awarded following a controversial handball by Galatasaray's Marcao. Eduardo Salvio scored from the penalty spot at the 27th minute.</p> <p>In the second half, the Lions' new transfer Christian Luyindama equalized in the 54th minute but Haris Seferovic secured Benfica's win with a second goal in the 64th minute for the Portuguese club.</p> <p>Benfica trashed Nacional on Sunday with a staggering score of 10-0. Benfica continued to closely follow Porto after their sixth league win in a row, increasing their total points to 50, only one point behind the leaders.</p> <p>Galatasaray cut the deficit with the leader Medipol Basaksehir to six points with Sunday’s win against Trabzonspor with a 3-1 score in the Spor Toto Super Lig.</p> <p>The Lions are the only Turkish club to have won the UEFA Cup in 1999-2000 and the 2000 UEFA Super Cup, while Benfica won two European Cups in 1961 and 1962 and lost two Europa League finals in 2013 and in 2014.</p> <p>Galatasaray and Benfica were among the eight teams transferring from the UEFA Champions League group stage to the UEFA Europa League.</p> <p>The second leg will be played Feb. 21 in Lisbon, Portugal.

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