Sporting Braga – AS Monaco 2-0
After the painful elimination in the semi-final of the French Cup, the Europa League had become even more important for Philippe Clement and AS Monaco. Opponent in the 1/8th finals: Sporting Braga, the number four in the Portuguese league.
Monaco is only eighth in the French league, but did book a vital win against Marseille (0-1) last weekend. Clement’s men wanted to maintain the good feeling in Portugal, but were already behind after three minutes. Braga took a blistering start and deservedly took the lead, just after half an hour the equalizing goal by Monaco captain Wissam Ben Yedder was rightly disallowed for offside.
During the second half, the home team collapsed completely and Monaco was clearly in charge, but Clement’s team no longer managed to score. At the very end of the game, Braga even made it 2-0. Monaco fails to perform regularly under Clement.
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FC Barcelona – Galatasaray 0-0
Barcelona wanted to build on the excellent performance against Napoli in the Play-off round. During the entire first half against Galatasaray, the Catalans had the upper hand and almost 70 percent of the ball, but many missed opportunities did not come from that.
It was a signal for coach Xavi to make a triple substitution at half time. Busquets, Piqué and Dembélé replaced González, Araujo and Torres. Creating chances was already much better, but not scoring. Barça will have to go to work in Turkey next week.
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Atalanta – Bayer Leverkusen 3-2
You can count on Atalanta for a final win in the Europa League among the contenders. At home against Bayern Leverkusen, the Italian goalscoring machine did its job again. The absolute Man of the Match is an old acquaintance: Ruslan Malinovskyi (ex-Genk) scored the opening goal and then provided two assists for goal-getter Luis Muriel. Leverkusen softened to 3-2, Moussa Diaby scored on a pass from Odilon Kossounou (ex-Club Brugge).
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Sevilla – West Ham United 1-0
Sevilla was unable to qualify for the knockout phase of the Champions League before New Years and thus ended up in the Play-off round of the Europa League. In it, the Spaniards eliminated the Croatian national champion Dinamo Zagreb.
In the 1/8th finals, the opposition was a bit tougher: West Ham United from the Premier League. The English had undoubtedly expected more from the first leg, because they barely got involved. Sevilla was in charge from start to finish and created the best opportunities. Munir El Haddadi gave the Spaniards the deserved lead after an hour. Four-time Europa League winner Sevilla could and should have counted out West Ham completely, but it remained at 1-0. The return match is going to be interesting.
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Rangers – Red Star 3-0
The Scottish Rangers also continue to do very well in Europe. The team of coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst, ex-Dutch international, beat Zrvena Zvezda (read: Red Star Belgrade) at home with 3-0. The return match in Serbia seems unnecessary.
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