Manchester United, Tottenham and Roma have taken an option on the 8es of the Europa League by winning all three away, Thursday, February 18, in the first leg of the 16es, while Lille cracked at the end of the match against Ajax Amsterdam.
In the leading trio of Ligue 1, the Lille Mastiffs faced the prestigious Ajax Amsterdam, winner of six European Cups in total (4 C1, 1 C2, 1 C3), who for more than an hour has nothing makes his dominance in play and possession.
The Dutch were even down 1-0 when Timothy Weah (72e) intercepted a back pass from Nicolas Tagliafico. But the Mastiffs cracked at the very end of the match, conceding a penalty from Dusan Tadic (87e) before letting substitute Brian Brobbey (89e). The return match promises to be complicated.
Two masters at play
In Turin, for health reasons, the Red Devils did not need to force too much to dominate Real Sociedad (4-0) thanks to their two masters to play, Bruno Fernandes (27e, 57e) and Marcus Rashford (65e), and a youngest of Reece James (90e). ManU has already won the Europa League, in 2017.
Like Manchester United, and for the same reasons related to the coronavirus, Tottenham played a relocated match in Budapest, against the Austrians of Wolfsberg. With an almost similar score (4-1) thanks to goals from Son Heung-min (13e), Gareth Bale (28e), Lucas Moura (34e) and Carlos Vinicius (88e).
Italian side, AS Roma, currently 3e of Serie A, won 2-0 at Sporting Braga, Portugal. But in the duel between former C1 winners, AC Milan led 1-0 then 2-1 against the Red Star in Belgrade, before being caught 2-2 at the last minute of stoppage time.
Crazy first part of the evening
Meanwhile, in a crazy first part of the evening (35 goals in 9 games), Leicester, 3e Premier League, was content with a goalless draw in Prague against Slavia (0-0) but Olympiakos was talking powder (4-2) against PSV Eindhoven.
Another completely unbridled match allowed the Young Boys of Bern to beat Bayer Leverkusen (4-3) while, much further east of Europe, Dinamo Zagreb won in Krasnodar (3-2) but will still have to be very vigilant in the second leg.
On the lawn of Benfica, Arsenal were led 1-0 following a penalty converted by Pizzi (64e), the Portuguese captain, then Bukayo Saka equalized three minutes later (67e) and got the Gunners off the hook.
The surprise came from Granada, 8e of La Liga, which beat Italians Napoli (2-0) and prepared well for the return match at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, next week.
Meanwhile, in Salzburg, the “Yellow submarine”, official nickname of Villareal, 6e de Liga, also won 2-0, as did the Ukrainians of Shakhtar Donetsk, semi-finalists last year, to the Israelis of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Between the Belgians in Antwerp and the Rangers in Glasgow, the suspense was total and the twists and turns many, until the victory of the Scots at the end of the suspense (4-3), thanks in particular to two penalties from Barisic.
As for the Norwegians of Molde, they were led 3-1 by the Germans of Hoffenheim then ended up equalizing (3-3).
