Manchester United basically qualify for the quarter-finals, Olympiakos play with ten-men for over an hour and coronavirus continues to sweep through Europe canceling fixtures. Here is everything that went down in Europa League’s Round of 16 on Thursday night.
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LASK 0 – 5 Manchester United
Another Manchester United clash in Europa League – another five goals by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men. Having dominated the entire game, United will feel confident going into the second leg with five away goals on aggregate after completely destroying LASK in an empty Linzer Stadion.
Ighalo produced an absolute belter for the match opener; a straight strike on his left foot that rattled the inside of the crossbar, the sound of which we could all hear as if we were standing right beneath it. The Nigerian has scored in all three of his starts in all competitions for United since he completed his dream move. Is he Solskjaer’s lucky charm?
5 – Mason Greenwood is the first ever teenager to score as many as five goals in a single European campaign for @ManUtd (excluding qualifiers). Free. pic.twitter.com/ybBQpmoE8G
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 12, 2020
Daniels James finally ended his 32-match goalless run to put the visitors two up in the 58th minute, before Juan Mata slotted home the third in the 82nd. Poor LASK were struggling and did not manage a single shot on target, in comparison to United’s ten. Their misery continued when substitutes Mason Greenwood and Andreas Pereira scored within seconds of each other in the last minute of play.
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Manchester United’s path to the quarter-finals of Europa League is essentially sealed, and LASK will have to do the impossible in the second leg at Old Trafford next Thursday to keep their dreams of European glory alive.
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Rangers 1 – 3 Bayer Leverkusen
Just as we predicted, Rangers suffered a 1-3 loss against Bayer in what was their first home European defeat in 18 games. At the same time, the Bundesliga side have won three consecutive away matches for the first time in their European Cup history.
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Kai Havertz opened up the scoresheet at the crowd-filled Ibrox Arena with a penalty awarded thanks to a VAR-checked handball by George Edmundson. The German side were one up and Charles Aranguiz secured their second 30 minutes later.
Edmundson gave Ranger a glimmer of hope when he headed in a cross by James Tavernier, but the tremendous Leon Bailey produced a stunning curler for Bayer’s third and final goal of the night.
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Steven Gerrard’s men have now been condemned to a third defeat in four matches and have their work cut out for them in the second leg tie at BayArena next week.
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Olympiakos 1 – 1 Wolverhampton
Olympiakos managed a one-all draw against Wolves after playing with 10 men for over an hour at the virtually empty Karaiskakis Stadium on Thursday night. Ruben Semedo was sent off in the 28th minute for fouling Diogo Jota, but that didn’t deter the hosts from scoring the match opener twenty minutes later.
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Youssef El Arabi tapped it home thanks to a brilliant assist by Guilherme, but Wolves equalized with an away goal in Athens after Neto’s low free-kick took a deflection and went in from over 20 yards out.
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“The beginning of the game was strange,” said Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo. “The energy levels were missing… someone to push. It was not a very good game of football. It was not the best game to watch for sure.”
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It is yet to be determined whether or not the return tie will take place next week, due to concerns over coronavirus, especially following Olympiakos’ recent struggles with the outbreak.
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Elsewhere
Eintracht Frankfurt deservedly lost 3-0 to Basel in an empty Waldstadion, Shakhtar Donetsk beat Wolfsburg 1-2 in Germany whilst Istanbul Basaksehir overcame the Danish side Kobenhavn by one goal to nil in Turkey.
1 – For the first time in an European League match both teams missed a penalty in the 1st half. D'oh. #WOBDON #UEL pic.twitter.com/8IhJkWQOqH
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) March 12, 2020
That’s it from the first leg of Europa League’s Round of 16 tie! See you next Thursday (hopefully!) for the return fixtures. Make sure to bet with 22Bet!
