Betis's Chimy Avila hit the post with an acrobatic volley one minute later and both teams wasted several chances for the winner late on.
Ligue 1 leaders Olympique Lyonnais were knocked out of the French Cup 3-2 at Nantes on Tuesday with Vincent Bessat grabbing a hat-trick in the last-32 game on a night of upsets.
Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League hopes were crushed by mid-table Belgian side Gent, who booked their spot in the last 16 with a 2-2 draw at Wembley on Thursday as the hosts paid the penalty for Dele Alli's first-half red card.
Nice strengthened their grip on the Ligue 1 standings when they beat 10-man Olympique Lyonnais 2-0 at home on Friday.
Marouane Fellaini played chief tormentor as France suffered a 4-3 home defeat in a home friendly against Belgium on Sunday.
Real Madrid got their Champions League title defence off to a strong start on Wednesday by convincingly beating AS Roma 3-0 at home with goals from Isco, Gareth Bale and a stoppage-time strike from returning striker Mariano Diaz.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The Catalans are overwhelming favourites to win the game and have an outstanding home record in the Champions League, remaining unbeaten at the Nou Camp in the competition since losing to Bayern Munich in 2013.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
Unbeaten in six games, the draw leaves third-placed Sevilla on 51 points, four ahead of Real Sociedad and five ahead of both Getafe and Atletico Madrid, while Levante are 12th on 35 points.
Ajax Amsterdam produced a performance worthy of the club's illustrious past when they crushed Olympique Lyonnais 4-1 on Wednesday to move to the brink of their first European final since 1996.
Real were smarting from a surprise 1-1 draw at struggling Elche in their last match and were missing captain Sergio Ramos, who was out with a stomach bug.
Europa League favourites Manchester United secured a 1-1 draw on a threadbare pitch at Rostov, while Olympique Lyonnais beat AS Roma 4-2 helped by a fine individual goal from Nabil Fekir in their last 16, first leg ties on Thursday.
France coach Didier Deschamps was relieved to come through his side's 2-0 quarter-final win over Uruguay without losing any of his players to an unnecessary suspension, he said after Friday's match in Nizhny Novgorod.
European champions Portugal spurned a two-goal lead against Tunisia, stumbling to a 2-2 draw, as France, one of the World Cup favourites, flexed their muscles with a comfortable 2-0 win over Ireland in warm-up friendlies on Monday.
After playing the most soporific game of the World Cup so far, France will feature in a seismic last-16 clash of former champions with a resurgent Argentina on Saturday, and they will have to drastically improve if they are to stop Lionel Messi.
Already-qualified France played out an uninspiring goalless draw with Denmark in their final World Cup Group C match at Moscow's Luzhniki stadium on Tuesday, which was enough to ensure that both teams advance to the knockout stage.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Barcelona lost ground on La Liga leaders Real Madrid when their 11-match winning streak was snapped by Malaga, while Premier League pacesetters Chelsea dropped points at home to Burnley. Bayern Munich enjoyed a second-successive goalrush in the Bundesliga after routing Paderborn 6-0 while AS Roma lost ground to Serie A leaders Juventus after yet another draw. This and more from the happenings in the world of football over the weekend.
Manager Claudio Ranieri has challenged Leicester City to put in their best performance of the season when they host FC Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The win increased Zinedine Zidane's side's advantage at the top of the standings to six points
A summary of Thursday's matches in Europe's second tier club football tournament
Barca, who were without injured talisman Lionel Messi, started on the back foot and fell behind when Nabil Fekir netted with a sublime angled strike in the 15th minute. Griezmann, who joined Barca last month from rivals Atletico Madrid, scored four minutes before halftime to level the scores.
La Liga leaders Barcelona handed Real Madrid more hope in the title race as they drew 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, only avoiding defeat thanks to some outstanding saves by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Images from Sunday's action in La Liga and Ligue 1.
Images from football matches played in La Liga and Serie A in Spain and Italy on Wednesday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Centre forward Eder, who scored the winning goal in the Euro 2016 final against France, was among 10 players from that squad omitted from Santos's list. Other unlucky players included midfielders Andre Gomes and Renato Sanches, forward Nani and defender Eliseu.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Barcelona were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw at Olympique Lyonnais in their Champions League last-16 first leg on Tuesday as both sides remained unbeaten in this season's competition.
Karim Benzema scored his sixth goal in four games as Real Madrid beat Alaves 3-0 on Sunday for a fourth successive La Liga victory which took the European champions to within eight points of leaders Barcelona.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
A summary of Saturday's action in La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga.
Bayern Munich put upstarts RB Leipzig firmly in their place by sweeping to an emphatic 3-0 home win, with all the goals coming in the first half, in a disappointingly one-sided top-of-the-table Bundesliga clash on Wednesday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Juventus raced into a 2-0 halftime lead after Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret was sent off in the 25th minute. The visitors then had Pjanic dismissed and Napoli's Jose Callejon pulled one back before Insigne let the Turin side off the hook.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances