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Hagi stars while Jota and Kamada hit Europa League hat-tricks

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AFP Paris
Last Updated : Feb 21 2020 | 6:32 AM IST

Diogo Jota of Wolves and Daichi Kamada of Eintracht Frankfurt hit hat-tricks, but the man at the heart of the most remarkable Europa League display had a familiar name: Ianis Hagi, who inspired an unlikely Rangers fightback.

In the first leg of the round-of-32 on Thursday, Wolves beat Espanyol 4-0, Eintracht beat Salzburg 4-1 and Rangers beat Braga 3-2 at Ibrox.

Arsenal won 1-0 at Olympiakos and, in early games, Manchester United drew 1-1 away to Club Brugge and Celtic's visit to Copenhagen finished with the same score.

In a battle between two European heavyweights Bayer Leverkusen held off Porto 2-1.

Jota, who hit three in the last pool game in November and had not scored since, struck the first from close range, the second from a narrow angle and the third from outside the area.

Ruben Neves hit a typically spectacular volley and Wolves crushed the club struggling at the bottom of La Liga.

"We competed well and we were clinical," said Nuno Espirito Santo, the Wolves coach.

"For me, the organisation and another clean sheet is important. You know my view that everything starts from there."
"We showed unbelievable character, we ran hard for each other, we were more compact, more organised, we had a better shape and we were on the front foot more in the second half."
- Late strike -
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"At the end when you have a clean sheet, I'm happy. We won this game and we have the away goal so we're happy."

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First Published: Feb 21 2020 | 6:32 AM IST

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