Juventus, Porto, Basel Half Way Through

A late goal by Leonardo Bonucci earned Serie A leaders Juventus a 1-0 away victory against Olympique Lyon in theirEuropa League  quarter-final first leg on Thursday night.

The defender struck in the 85th minute, applying a powerful finish after a scramble for the ball inside the Lyon penalty area.

Carlos Tevez, the top scorer in Serie A after his move to Juventus from Manchester City, should have put his team in front as early as the sixth minute, but he headed wide to extend a European goal drought that stretches back to April 2009.

At the other end the former Sunderland and Fulham player Steed Malbranque had a good chance for Lyon but his effort was saved by Gianluigi Buffon and Jimmy Briand spurned an excellent opportunity, firing over from close range.

Valencia’s chances of reaching the semi-finals look remote after they went down 3-0 against Basel in Switzerland, the game played behind closed doors at St Jakob-Park as punishment for the trouble among home fans which caused the second leg of their 2-1 aggregate victory over Salzburg in the last round to be suspended for 13 minutes.

Basel have never reached a major European final and looked eager to change that as two goals from Matías Delgado put them in charge of the tie.

The Argentinian midfielder, in his second spell at the club, was allowed too much space to fire home from 20 yards into the bottom left corner to give Basel the lead after 34 minutes. Four minutes later Valencia failed to track Delgado and he stabbed in Valentin Stocker’s superb defence-bisecting cross from the left.

Stocker added the third in stoppage time, racing from the halfway line before unleashing a powerful drive.

The Portuguese league leaders Benfica, who beat Tottenham in the previous round, have the upper hand against AZ Alkmaar after beating them 1-0 away. Eduardo Salvio scored the only goal after 48 minutes with a smart volleyed finish after the AZ goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado had palmed out a shot from Óscar Cardozo.

Porto put shaky league form behind them to take a 1-0 lead over Sevilla, Eliaquim Mangala scoring with a fine header in the 31st minute. Porto will be without the defensive midfielder Fernando for the second leg in Spain, after he was sent off for two late yellow-card offences.