Matchday one of the Europa League’s Last-16 ends with expected results. The favorites have shown that they are not the favorites only on paper but on the field as well and have secured booked their tickets for the quarterfinal tournament in Germany.
FC Copenhagen (DEN) – Istanbul Basaksehir (TUR) 3-0 (3-1 agg)
The Danish side managed to dispatch the newly crowned Turkish champion with relative ease. They were chasing the 1-0 lead that the Istanbul team had in their first outing. Jonas Older Wind got things started in the 4th minute and made it two from the penalty spot in the second half. Rasmus Falk sealed the deal with a late effort.
Copenhagen makes it through with a 3-1 on aggregate.
Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) – Wolfsburg (GER) 3-0 (5-1 agg)
Shakhtar controlled the entirety of the match at their Olimpiyskiy Stadium against Wolfsburg. The Ukrainian champion was attacking throughout the whole match, which saw two red cards being given to both sides. Shakhtar was mainly attacking but Wolfsburg was successfully defending.
But their defense collapsed in the very last minutes of the game as they conceded three goals in a span of just four minutes. Courtesy of Junior Moraes and Manor Solomon rapid-fire, Shakhtar secured their spot in the quarter-finals of the 2020 Europa League.
Inter Milan (ITA) – Getafe (SPA) 2-0
Although favorites to win, Inter didn’t have it easy against the motivated Spanish side. Getafe was the better team at the start but somehow Inter did manage to take the lead through Romelu Lukaku in the 33rd minute of the match.
The Azulones kept attacking and had some nice opportunities to equalize. The best one was via a missed penalty by Jorge Molina in the second half. The Nerazzurri eventually punished all the misses when Christian Eriksen scored the second for his side and pushed Internazionale to the quarter-finals.
Inter and Getafe played only one fixture since the first one was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Manchester United (ENG) – LASK Linz (AUT) 2-1 (7-1 agg)
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decided to preserve some of his most important players and came out with a mixed roster against the Austrian side. With a five-goal cushion from the first match, it was the only sane thing to do.
LASK took advantage of this situation and after numerous attacks finally took the lead in the 55th minute when Philipp Wiesinger scored. But it was then when the Red Devils started playing better and began pushing on. Their offense was rewarded when the reviving Jesse Lingard scored an equalizer only two minutes after LASK took the lead.
Manchester eventually sealed the match with a 2-1 after Juan Mata played a stellar pass towards Anthony Martial who scored the winner for Manchester. This was a great result for the English side as they made it through comfortably and preserved their key players for the quarterfinals that come in just a few days.
