Athletic Bilbao will have the upper hand back at San Mames after holding Napoli to a 1-1 Champions League play-off draw last night.
The Primera Division and Serie A giants were pitted against each other in a battle to reach the group stages and Athletic took the initiative with Iker Muniain scoring four minutes before the break in Naples.
Muniain finished from inside the penalty area after Oscar De Marcos’ powerful run from right-back.
The otherwise excellent Aritz Aduriz should have extended Athletic’s advantage after the break but missed the target when well placed.
And Napoli hit back on 68 minutes as former Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain – who had been largely ineffective all night- fired a leveller on 68 minutes with a low finish into the far right-hand corner after being picked out by Marek Hamsik.
However, the Basque outfit will fancy their chances of winning the second leg and progressing to the next stage.
Meanwhile, Napoli are set to complete the signing of Jonathan De Guzman from Villarreal with the Dutch midfielder spotted at Naples airport last night. De Guzman has spent the last two seasons on loan at Swansea in the Premier League and will cost Napoli in the region of €6.5m (Dh32m).
There were five goals in the first half of action in the Danish capital as Bayer Leverkusen claimed a 3-2 win at FC Copenhagen.
Stefan Kiessling and Zanka exchanged goals inside the opening 10 minutes before Daniel Amartey nudged FCK ahead in the 13th minute.
Bayer equalised through Karim Bellarabi on 31 minutes and, three minutes before the break, Korean international Son Heung-min grabbed what proved to be the winner for the Bundesliga giants.
Meanwhile, Red Bull Salzburg will head to Sweden next week with their destiny in their own hands after Franz Schiemer and Jonathan Soriano scored in a 2-1 win over Malmo.
The ambitious Austrians, who conceded a last minute away goal thanks to Emil Forsberg, were a surprise package in the Europa League last season.
