Liverpool surged in direction of the Europa League quarter-finals with a 5-1 win at Sparta Prague on Thursday, as Roma thrashed Brighton 4-0 within the Italian capital.
AC Milan beat 10-man Slavia Prague 4-2, however Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen needed to come from 2-0 right down to protect their unbeaten season in a 2-2 draw towards Qarabag.
Liverpool stay on the right track to ship Jurgen Klopp off with a quadruple of trophies because the Reds weren’t distracted by Sunday’s mammoth Premier League showdown towards Manchester City.
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Klopp named a powerful aspect and received what he wished by killing off the tie within the first leg, even when there was a worth to pay in additional harm issues as centre-back Ibrahima Konate limped off.
Alexis Mac Allister received the guests off to the proper begin within the Czech capital as he gained and transformed a penalty after simply seven minutes.
Sparta had dumped out Galatasaray within the earlier spherical and created loads of probabilities towards a makeshift Liverpool defence.
But the distinction in high quality between the edges confirmed within the ultimate third.
Darwin Nunez’s dipping shot from lengthy vary outfoxed Peter Jensen to make it 2-0, earlier than the Uruguayan smashed dwelling Mac Allister’s by means of ball in first-half stoppage time.
“He has the most important attitude a striker needs to have in these chances,” Klopp mentioned of Nunez.
“He’s just a constant threat and he gives us some spaces and areas and options.”
Conor Bradley changed Joe Gomez at half-time and his first act was to fireside into the highest nook of his personal objective one minute into the second half.
But Luis Diaz’s deflected effort rapidly restored Liverpool’s three-goal cushion.
Mohamed Salah made his comeback from a hamstring harm in its place and thought he had marked his return with a objective, however a VAR evaluation disallowed his strike for offside.
Instead, it was one other substitute Dominik Szoboszlai who fired within the fifth in stoppage time.
Ruthless Roma
Brighton’s first foray into European soccer appears to be like over on the last-16 stage after the Seagulls have been thrashed by in-form Roma.
The Italian giants have solely misplaced as soon as in 10 video games since legendary former participant Daniele De Rossi changed the sacked Jose Mourinho in January.
“I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary,” mentioned De Rossi. “I’m very happy but they’re really good players. They’re winning matches that they should be winning.”
Paulo Dybala was completely picked out by Leandro Paredes to open the scoring earlier than Romelu Lukaku pounced on an error by Brighton captain Lewis Dunk to double Roma’s lead earlier than the break.
Gianluca Mancini and Bryan Cristante struck within the second half to spherical off a depressing journey for the guests.
Two Brighton followers have been stabbed in a theft the evening earlier than the sport.
Leverkusen are effectively on the right track to win their first-ever Bundesliga title however have work to do to succeed in the Europa League quarter-finals.
Yassine Benzia and a superb piece of ability from Juninho had Azeri champions Qarabag in dreamland simply earlier than the break.
Alonso had rested a lot of his key gamers and the Germans improved with a sequence of modifications after the break.
Two of the Spaniards substitutes Florian Wirtz and Patrik Schick scored within the ultimate 20 minutes to protect Leverkusen’s unbeaten file in 35 video games in all competitions this season.
Milan on observe
Milan got a serving to hand on the San Siro by an early crimson card for Slavia defender Malick Diouf.
Olivier Giroud, Tijjani Reijnders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic have been on course for the Italian giants.
But David Doudera’s gorgeous volley and Ivan Schranz’s strike gave Slavia hope.
Benfica twice got here from behind however Rangers have the higher hand going into the second leg at Ibrox after a 2-2 attract Lisbon.
However, West Ham have work to do after dropping 1-0 to Freiburg.
The Hammers had crushed the Germans twice within the group phases however Michael Gregoritsch scored the one objective 9 minutes from time to present Freiburg a slender first leg lead.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice in Marseille’s 4-0 humiliation of 10-man Villarreal.
Jordan Veretout and Yerson Mosquera’s personal objective had already put the French aspect in entrance earlier than Aubameyang’s double both aspect of half-time took his tally for the season to 21, 9 of which have come within the Europa League.
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated news company feed – AFP)
Source: www.news18.com
