The referee shows a red card to Leicester City's Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi (#25) during their Europa League clash with Napoli at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England, September 16, 2021. /CFP
Victor Osimhen scored twice as Napoli came from 2-0 down to salvage a 2-2 draw at Leicester, while Lyon cruised to a 2-0 win at Rangers on the opening night of the Europa League group stages on Thursday.
Earlier, Celtic threw away a two-goal lead to lose 4-3 to Real Betis and West Ham were convincing 2-0 winners away to Dinamo Zagreb.
Leicester just missed out on Champions League football for a second consecutive season as they finished fifth in the Premier League last term. But the Foxes are keen to go further than their run to the last 32 of the Europa League last season and got off to a great start against the Italian giants.
Ayoze Perez fired home at the back post from Harvey Barnes' cross after just nine minutes. Patson Daka then saw his first Leicester goal ruled out by a VAR review for a marginal offside call, but Barnes quickly put that disappointment behind Brendan Rodgers' men with an excellent finish to double Leicester's lead.
Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti held nothing in reserve with his strongest side and the visitors responded in the final quarter thanks to Osimhen.
The Nigerian, who cost $83 million from Lille last year, brilliantly flicked the ball over the imposing presence of Jannik Vestegaard and Kasper Schmeichel to get Napoli back in the game.
Osimhen then outjumped Caglar Soyuncu to power home a head for a deserved equalizer. And Leicester's night got even worse in stoppage time when Wilfred Ndidi was sent off in stoppage time for a second bookable offence.
Roma's Gianluca Manicni (#23) celebrates with his coach Jose Mourinho during their Conference League clash with CSKA Sofia at Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, September 16,2021. /CFP
Elsewhere in the new Europa Conference League, Jose Mourinho's Roma came from behind to thump CSKA Sofia 5-1. Captain Lorenzo Pellegrini netted twice for Roma with Stephan El Shaarawy, Gianluca Mancini and Tammy Abraham also scoring.
Union Berlin lost 3-1 at Slavia Prague, while Lincoln Red Imps made history by becoming the first team from Gibraltar to play in the group stage of a European competition as they lost 2-0 at home to PAOK of Greece.
In France, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's equalizer allowed Tottenham Hotspur to come away with a 2-2 draw against Rennes.
Loic Bade's own goal had given Spurs the lead in Brittany but Flavien Tait equalized and Gaetan Laborde put Rennes ahead in the 72nd minute.
That lead was swiftly cancelled out by Hojbjerg and, in the circumstances, it is a good result for Nuno Espirito Santo's Tottenham after their 3-0 drubbing at Crystal Palace last weekend.
The next game for Spurs in Group G is against Slovenian champions Mura, who lost 2-0 to Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem on Thursday.