Arsenal reached the Europa League quarterfinals despite losing 1-0 to Olympiakos in the 2nd leg at the Emirates Stadium in North London while Dinamo Zagreb upset Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 to knock Jose Mourinho’s side out of the competition.
Arsenal reached the Europa League quarter-finals despite suffering a 1-0 loss to Olympiakos in the second leg on Thursday, while Dinamo Zagreb’s Mislav Orsic netted a brilliant hattrick to knock out Tottenham Hotspur after extra time.
Arsenal 0-1 Olympiacos (Aggregate: 3-2)
Youssef El-Arabi’s deflected second-half strike earned Olympiakos another victory just like last season, at the Emirates, but Arsenal advanced 3-2 on aggregate, to avoid a repeat of their exit against the Greeks on away goals last season.
“Really happy to be through. We had a tough opponent, so happy to be through. Sometimes we have to be fair with ourselves – we were nowhere near the levels we could be,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Aggregate: 3-2)
Jose Mourinho’s Spurs had a 2-0 lead following last week’s first leg in London, but Orsic bagged a brace in regulation by scoring in the 62nd and 82nd minute to send the game into extra time as the Croatian champions levelled the tie at home.
Dinamo Zagreb coach Zoran Mamic resigned this week after being sentenced to almost 5 years in jail for a multi-million euro fraud involving Luka Modric’s transfer to Tottenham along with other transfers.
Mislav Orsic curled in a marvellous shot from outside the box, in the corner of the area to give Dinamo the lead and then capped off a fine team move with a lovely finish that flew into the top-left corner as Zagreb completed an unprecedented comeback to send the game into extra time.
Orsic completed his hattrick in style as he ran past three players and drilled a low shot past Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris from the edge of the box in the 106th minute to knock the North Londoners out of Europe.
Harry Kane nearly scored a late goal that would have put Spurs through on away goals but his effort was kept out by Zagreb goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic as the hosts won 3-2 on aggregate.
Jose Mourinho heavily criticized his team. (Photo by Goran Stanzl/Pixsell/MB Media/Getty Images)
“My team didn’t bring to the game the basics of football or life – to respect our jobs and give everything. I can only apologise to the Tottenham supporters,” said Mourinho.
“If I forget the last 10 minutes of extra time, where we did something to get a different result, the 90 minutes and first half of extra time was one team leaving everything on the pitch.
“My team didn’t look like it was playing an important match. Another attitude is needed. To say I feel sad is not enough. What I feel is much more than sadness.”
Molde FK 2-1 Granada (Aggregate: 2-3)
Spanish side Granada’s first ever European competition has gone well so far as they held on to their home lead by going through 3-2 on aggregate, despite losing 2-1 to Norway’s Molde in Budapest.
Shakhtar Donetsk 1-2 AS Roma (Aggregate: 1-5)
Favourites Roma comfortably progressed to the quarterfinals of the Europa League with a 2-1 away victory against Shakhtar Donetsk in Kiev, Ukraine. Borja Mayoral scored both goals for the Italian club who handsomely won 5-1 win on aggregate.
Villarreal 2-0 Dynamo Kyiv (Aggregate: 4-0)
Spanish club Villarreal made easy work of Dynamo Kyiv by winning comfortably at home to do the double on the Ukranian side.
Rangers 0-2 Slavia Praha (Aggregate: 1-3)
Newly crowned Scottish champions Rangers, were knocked out by Czech Republic side Slavia Prague. The first leg ended as a draw in Prague but the Scottish side failed to use home advantage as they lost to the Czech team 2-0 in Glasgow.
BSC Young Boys 0-2 Ajax (Aggregate: 0-5)
Ajax had no problems of dispatching their opponents as they crushed Swiss league champions BSC Young Boys 2-0 at the Stade de Suisse after winning the first leg 3-0 in Amsterdam.
AC Milan 0-1 Manchester United (Aggregate: 1-2)
Last season’s semifinalists, Manchester United got the job done against Stefano Pioli’s AC Milan at San Siro to secure their place in the final 8 of the Europa League after the first leg ended in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in Manchester.
(Photo by Valentin Flauraud – UEFA)
Here are the 8 teams that are through to the quarterfinals of the 2020-21 UEFA Europa League.
- Arsenal (England)
- Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
- Granada (Spain)
- Roma (Italy)
- Villarreal (Spain)
- Slavia Praha (Czech Republic)
- Ajax (Netherlands)
- Manchester United (England)
