Europa League Roundup: Manchester United, Arsenal into last 8; Spurs dumped out of the round of 16

Paul Pogba came off the bench to fire Manchester United into the Europa League quarter-finals, while Arsenal lost to Olympiakos at the Emirates but still qualified 3-2 on aggregate with Spurs the only Premier League side to lose out of the last 8.

The Reds defeated AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro to complete a 2-1 aggregate win on Thursday night and would find out their next opponents in Friday’s draw.

Pogba, who had missed United’s previous 10 games due to a thigh injury, impacted the game instant impact after coming on for Marcus Rashford at the break and scored the crucial away goal as United joined Arsenal in Friday’s draw for the last eight.

AC Milan also introduced Zlatan Ibrahimovic who was returning after an injury lay off from the bench in the second half but the Swede who was facing his former side was denied with a header from close range by Dean Henderson during an open second period.

United used all their experience to wind down the clock and almost doubled their lead but Paul Pogba’s header from Dan James went narrowly over, but one goal would prove enough.

https://youtu.be/2_qgiXUQoho

Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)

  • Manchester United have progressed from each of their last two knockout ties with Milan in European competition, having been eliminated in each of the four ties beforehand (European Cup in 1957-58 and 1968-69, Champions League in 2004-05 and 2006-07).
  • Manchester United have only lost one of their last 20 knockout stage matches in the UEFA Europa League (W12 D7), a 1-2 defeat to Sevilla in 2019-20 semi-final.
  • Milan have lost five of their last six home games against English teams in European competition (W1), after going unbeaten in each of their first 13 such matches (W8 D5).
  • Dean Henderson has kept 11 clean sheets in just 18 appearances for Man Utd in all competitions this season, one more than David de Gea has registered in 29 games (10).
  • Man Utd’s Paul Pogba has scored in each of his last two away games versus Milan (also for Juve in April 2016) – while this was just his second ever goal as a substitute for the Red Devils in what was his 31st such appearance (also scored v Brighton in Sept 2020).
  • Man Utd’s Harry Maguire has played more minutes than any other Premier League player in all competitions this season (3855 mins), with no Utd player making more clearances (5) or interceptions (5) versus Milan tonight.

Arsenal 0-1 Olympiakos (Agg: 3-2): Big win in Greece sees Arsenal through despite losing the second leg

Europa League results

Youssef El-Arabi who scored in extra-time to seal Olympiakos route to the next round at Arsenal’s expense last season almost haunted the Gunners for a second straight season but his late goal was not enough to overturn a first-leg deficit as Arsenal reached the Europa League quarter-finals with a 3-2 aggregate win over Olympiakos.

El-Arabi scored via a deflection six minutes after half-time to give the Greek side a 1-0 win on the night at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal’s defeat followed a poor second-half performance and failed to consolidate on their two-goal advantage in the tie, and should have added to it through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who blasted over when well-placed.

El-Arabi’s finishing was also off when he fired straight at Bernd Leno before he found his shooting boots for the only goal of the night, to give Olympiakos realistic hope they could knock Arsenal out for a second straight year.

But once Ousseynou Ba was sent off for two bookings within 10 seconds of one another, for fouling Gabriel Martinelli and then throwing the ball at him, their glimmer of hope faded, and Mikel Arteta’s side survived a scare to reach the last eight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOf1gARePnk

Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)

  • Arsenal have made it to the quarter-finals for the fourth time in their last five Europa League/UEFA Cup campaigns (knocked out at Last 32 stage last season), after failing to reach that stage in each of their first five attempts.
  • Olympiakos have failed to reach the quarter-finals in any of their 23 Europa League/ UEFA Cup campaigns.
  • Arsenal have now conceded in each of their last 11 matches across all competitions – their longest run without a clean sheet since a stretch of 14 matches without a shutout between October – December 2019.
  • Arsenal have lost three consecutive home matches against an opponent in European competition for the first time ever.
  • Arsenal games have produced seven red cards this season in all competitions (5 for, 2 against), the joint-most of any Premier League side (also seven for Aston Villa).
  • Olympiakos forward Youssef El-Arabi became just the fourth player to score in three consecutive matches against Arsenal in major European competition, after Lionel Messi (March 2016), Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski (both March 2017).

Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 Tottenham (agg 3-2): Spurs crash out of Europa League

Europa League

Tottenham was ejected from the Europa League by Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb, losing 3-0 as Mislav Orsic stunned the English side with an impressive hat-trick that wiped out Spurs’ 2-0 lead from the first leg.

Tottenham had been in pole position to qualify for the quarter-finals, but they were made to pay for another horrible performance in Croatia on Thursday night.

Having lost the North London derby 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday, Spurs were very lackluster in the first 45 minutes but managed to keep their aggregate lead intact.

However, Zagreb’s forward Orsic produced an inspired hat-trick to send Spurs crashing out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYRshvvEy_s

Manager’s reaction…

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho told BT Sport: “In the 90 minutes and in the first half of extra-time, there was one team that decided to leave everything on the pitch. They left everything there – they left sweat, energy, blood and at the end of the game, they had even tears of happiness. Very humble, very committed and I have to praise them

“On the other side, my team didn’t look they were playing an important match. But for me, it is for the respect I have for my own career and my own job. Every match is an important match for me and I believe that for every Tottenham fan at home, every match matters and another attitude is needed.

“To say that I feel sad is not enough because what I feel goes much further than sadness.

“I just left Dinamo’s dressing room where I went there to praise the guys and I feel sorry that one team – that is not my team – won the game based on attitude, on comprise so I feel more than sad. Football is not just about players who think they have more quality than others. The basics of football go beyond that, the basics of football is the attitude and they beat us on that.

“Many times I fear my thoughts, my feelings but I don’t blame myself in the sense that I always share them. Before the game, I told the players the risks of a bad attitude. I told them at half-time, even with 0-0, the risk of playing the way we were playing and it happened because I believe that the players only realised the game was in risk when they scored the second goal and it went to extra-time.

“I feel sorry that my team, I belong to that team, is the team that didn’t bring to the game not just the basics of football, but the basics of life, which is to respect our jobs and to give everything.

“On behalf of my team, in spite of maybe some of them who don’t share my feelings and my emotions, I can only apologise to the Tottenham supporters and I hope that the players feel the same as I feel.”

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