Article 94 — Europa League Round of 16 Round-Up
The Round of 16 in the Europa League was concluded on the 5th and 6th August 2020.
I have already mulled over Inter and Manchester United’s progress to the quarter-finals. You can read about it here: https://medium.com/@rasfootballworld/article-93-inter-and-united-advance-to-the-last-8-of-the-europa-league-a8fd01070f60
Now for the rest of the matches. I am aware that Manchester United and Inter are joint-favourites to win the Europa League but Sevilla and Shakthar Donestk can’t be too far away. In fact, I would stick my neck out to say that they are better than us (United and Inter).
Shakhtar Donestk had missed so many chances in their game before scoring thrice late in the game to give themselves a well-deserved 3–0 win and a resounding 5–1 aggregate win. Shakhtar’s Brazilian or Brazilian born forwards, Marlos, Taison and Junior Moraes were very impressive and they have been for some time now. I am surprised that bigger clubs have not signed them up.
Sevilla, the record UEFA Cup/Europa League champions were playing against Roma. It was supposed to be an even game but it was far from it. Sevilla dominated the game and could have scored more than the two goals that they scored in the first half. Sevilla has the advantage of an extra week of rest and that showed too.
Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Olympiacos 1–0 on the night and 2–1 on aggregate. Wolves had chances to score more than once in this game but didn’t take their chances and with the score finely poised at 1–0, Olympiacos too had chances to get back into the game. Thankfully for Wolves, they hung on to go through and became the second English team in the quarter-final. England is the only country with two representatives in the quarter-final. Wolves’ progress would mean a mouth-watering quarter-final against Sevilla on Tuesday.
Bayer Leverkusen progressed to the quarter-final as Germany’s solitary flag-bearer. They had a comfortable 3–1 lead from the first leg and a 1–0 win in the second leg sealed their progress. They would be tricky opponents for Inter on Monday. Basel was another team that had a healthy first-leg lead, sealed their progress with a late 1–0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt for a 4–0 aggregate win. Basel would have a very tough quarter-final coming up against one of the favourites Ukrainian team, Shakhtar Donestk.
Finally, FC Copenhagen overcame a 0–1 first-leg deficit to knock newly crowned, history makers, Turkish champions Istanbul Basaksehir out 3–1 on aggregate. FC Copenhagen won 3–0 on the day. They created history by becoming the first Danish team to progress to the quarter-final of the Europa League. They would be facing one of the favourites, Manchester United in the quarter-final in a reunion of friends and former international team-mates in the respective dugouts, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer and Stale Solbakken.
