The UEFA Europa League is in its final stages. Manchester United and Arsenal are among the teams hoping to lift the trophy this season, thereby earning a spot in the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League. While United achieved a positive result to that end, Arsenal were held by Slavia Prague.
Manchester United beat Granada 2-0 in the UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg, courtesy of Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes’s goals. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team gained the upper hand in the tie, as a result, and are now the favourites to progress to the semi-finals.
Rashford gave United the lead just after the half-hour mark, as he raced on to Victor Lindelof’s stunning pass before sliding the ball into the net. Granada did not sit still and nearly had the equalizer before half-time. Manchester City loanee Yangel Herrera almost caught David De Gea by surprise, as his pass/shot hit the post and came back in play.
Bruno Fernandes doubled the Red Devils’ advantage in the 90th minute from the penalty spot. The midfielder was seemingly obstructed in the box, which allowed him to score from the spot – a chance that he took. United will face Granada in the return leg in a week, hoping to kill the tie for good.
Elsewhere, Arsenal did not enjoy as successful an evening as their league rivals. Mikel Arteta’s men were unable to get the better of Slavia Praha and could only muster a 1-1 draw. The Gunners did take the lead in this one but gave away a late goal to their opponents, who will take the ‘away’ goal advantage into the second leg.
Arsenal were guilty of spurning chances to take the lead. Alexandre Lacazette was presented with the best chance to open the scoring in the second half. However, the French forward somehow missed the target with just the goalkeeper to beat. Nevertheless, Arteta’s team eventually found the breakthrough four minutes from time through Nicholas Pepe. The Ivorian latched on to a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang pass before dinking the ball over the onrushing Ondrej Kolar.
Slavia Praha, who have been the surprise package of the tournament this season, found the equalizing goal just seconds before the full-time whistle. Pepe turned from hero to villain within the space of a few minutes as the ball deflected off him in the path of Tomas Holes, who headed past Bernd Leno in goal for the leveller. The German custodian did get a hand to the ball first but could only parry it into the net.
Arsenal and Slavia Praha will face off in the return leg a week from now, with the Czech team holding a minor advantage. Should the Gunners progress to the semi-finals, they could face their former manager Unai Emery. The Spaniard coached his current side, Villarreal, to a narrow 1-0 win over giant-killers Dinamo Zagreb.
Dinamo mounted a stunning second-leg comeback to beat Tottenham Hotspur in the previous round. However, there weren’t to be any such heroics this time, as Villarreal beat them by one goal to nil. Gerard Moreno scored from the spot in the first half to give his side the lead.
In the final last-eight fixture, recent Champions League semi-finalists Roma and Ajax faced each other. Roma came out on top in this one, as they beat Ajax 2-1. Paulo Fonseca’s men fell behind to a Davy Klaassen goal in the 39th minute. However, midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini restored parity shortly after the break and Roger Ibanez netted the winner just minutes before full-time. Ajax star Dusan Tadic had missed a penalty shortly before Roma’s equalizer.
Roma will be the team with the advantage in the second leg, thanks to their two away goals.
