There have been no upsets in the Europa League Round of 32, as the favourites managed to advance while treating SBOTOP football fans to a lot of goals and highlights in the process.
After two legs, SC Freiburg, AC Milan, Benfica, Qarabag FK, Sparta Praha, Sporting, Marseille, and AS Roma are all through to the Round of 16.
Waiting for them in the next round are West Ham United, Brighton, Rangers, Atalanta, Liverpool, Villarreal Slavia Prague, and Bayer Leverkusen, and the Europa League 2024 odds don’t really have a firm favourite.
The draw for the Round of 16 is going to be held later, and the first legs will be played in the first week of March.
Without further ado, let’s look back at last night’s action by reviewing some of the biggest Europa League 2024 results.
Serie A contingents hold off their gritty counterparts
Since winning the Scudetto is unlikely for AC Milan and AS Roma this year, their best chance of winning a trophy is in the Europa League, and now they’re one step closer.
AC Milan blitzed Rennes 3-0 in the first leg, as Ruben Loftus-Cheek (brace) and Rafael Leao scored. But tired legs were evident in the second leg last night since they were coming off a 4-2 loss against Monza on Sunday.
Luka Jovic and Rafael Leao scored again for the Rossoneri, but they lost the game through a hat-trick by Benjamin Bourigeaud. If it weren’t for their three-goal cushion from the first leg, they would’ve been out of this tournament.
Meanwhile, AS Roma didn’t have such luxury against Feyenoord in what was a rematch of the 2022 Europa Conference League final, as both of their legs ended in back-to-back 1-1 draws.
In both games, Feyenoord jumped out to a one-goal lead, but Romelu Lukaku and Lorenzo Pellegrini bailed out AS Roma with their equalisers. And during the penalty shootout in the second leg, AS Roma won 4-2, with Mile Svilar making two huge saves.
Romelu Lukaku is currently second in the Golden Boot race of this tournament with six goals. With him in tow, AS Roma believe that they have a chance to win it all.
Portugal will be well represented in the next round
Liga Portugal table leaders Benfica and Sporting are probably feeling themselves since both teams can realistically come away with two trophies this season. As of this writing, both are level with 55 points in the Portuguese top-flight, with Benfica on top due to a superior goal difference.
Here in the Europa League Round of 32, Benfica and Sporting made it through, although their victories couldn’t be any different.
Benfica were held to a rather uninspiring goalless draw by Toulouse last night, so it’s a good thing that they won 2-1 in the first leg, courtesy of two penalty conversions by Angel Di Maria in the second half.
In stark contrast, Sporting won via an aggregate tally of 4-2, as they won 3-1 in the first leg and drew 1-1 yesterday. Viktor Gyokeres managed to score two goals in those two legs, and he now has four goals in the competition, good for joint-third in the Golden Boot race.
Porto are the last Portuguese side that won the Europa League crown in 2010-11, so Benfica and Sporting will be motivated to make new history.
Marseille can take solace in Europe despite poor league form
The Round of 32 tie between Marseille and Shakhtar Donetsk is easily one of the more entertaining matchups here in the Europa League.
Their first-leg clash ended in a 2-2 draw, as both teams traded punches in the second half. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opened the scoring, but Mykola Matviyenko replied after just four minutes. And during added time, Eguinaldo scored the equaliser after Iliman Ndiaye’s goal.
Heorhly Sudakov converted a penalty that he won against Jonathan Clauss to give Shakhtar Donetsk a 1-0 lead last night at the Stade Velodrome, giving Marseille a serious scare. However, 11 minutes later, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalised, and then Ismaila Sarr and Geoffrey Kondogbia completed the comeback by scoring two more.
This means that Aubameyang is now the competition’s all-time leading scorer with 31 goals (and counting). He also holds the solo lead at the top of the Golden Boot race with seven goals.
This also means that Jean-Louis Gasset, who replaced Gennaro Gattuso earlier this week after a poor run of results in Ligue 1, is off to a good start since this was his first victory as interim manager for OM.
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