The last 16 in the Europa League is now over, with a Manchester United and Arsenal advancing to the quarter-finals while Tottenham and Rangers crashed out of the competition.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United proved why they are among the favourites to win the competition with a 1-0 win over AC Milan.
The returning Paul Pogba scored after a 10-match absence as United overcame their opponents to advance to the next round, winning 2-1 on aggregate.
Arsenal also made it into the next round, despite losing 1-0 on the night to Olympiacos. Youssef El-Arabi scored the only goal of the game, but the 3-1 first leg win was enough to see Mikel Arteta’s side through.
Tottenham crash out of the Europa League embarrassingly
North London rivals Spurs weren’t as fortunate, squandering a 2-0 lead against Dinamo Zagreb.
A hat-trick from Mislav Orsic sent the Croatians flying into the next round, with the match ending 3-2 on aggregate after extra-time despite Zagreb not even having a permanent manager.
Rangers exit too but tie tarnished by racial abuse
Despite Rangers falling to a 2-0 defeat by Czech side Slavia Prague, all the attention was on the racial abuse faced by midfielder Glen Kamara.
Two Rangers players were sent off prior to the incident, with Leon Balogun and Kemar Roofe seeing red.
The Scottish champions were eliminated from the competition after strikes from Peter Olayinka and Nicolae Stanciu, but the alleged abuse aimed at Kamara rightly took all the plaudits away from Slavia’s good performance.
Aside from British interest…
Elsewhere, Roma defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 5-2 on aggregate to comfortably make it into the quarter-finals. Borja Mayoral scored twice for the Italian side, despite Ukrainian international Junior Moraes netting an initial equaliser.
Two Spanish clubs advanced to the next round, despite Granada losing 2-1 to Molde on the night but going through thanks to their 2-0 victory in the first leg. Former Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado scored again for the Spaniards, despite an early Jesus Vallejo own goal and a 90th-minute Eirik Hestad penalty.
Villarreal also won, replicating their 2-0 first leg win with the same result this time round against Dynamo Kiev. A brace from Gerard Moreno helped Unai Emery’s side into the next round, with the tie ending 4-0 on aggregate.
Finally, Ajax continued their dominance over BSC Young Boys with a comfortable 2-0 win thanks to goals from Dusan Tadic and David Neres. The win saw the Dutch champions win 5-0 over the two legs, easily making it into the quarter-finals.
