Bayer Leverkusen was leaving a dream. The current Bundesliga leaders led by Xabi Alonso were the only club in the Top 5 European leagues not be defeated and counted 36 consecutive games unbeaten. They played the easiest possible opponent in the Europa League – Azerbajian’s Qarabag, whom they already beaten twice in the group stage (0-1, 5-1). But that streak nearly came to an end tonight in Germany. After two wins in the group stage, Xavi Alonso played the first game without his main players and was losing 2-0 in Azerbaijan until the 70th minute, before Wirtz and Schick saved him from embarrassment. But the Spanish tactician didn’t learned his lesson and again left his best players on the bench. And he was on the brink of a total embarrassment in front of his own fans, as the return leg was total deja-vu: Qarabaq was leading 2-0 in Germany 20 minutes before the end and evne had 10 men in the last 30 minutes, and again Patrick Schick came to the rescue, first for an equalizer in the 93rd and then for the win in the 97th minute.Bayer attacked during the whole match, but just couldn’t score and then the guests made a quick counter-attack and stunned the home crowd with a goal in the 56th minute. Cafarquliyev stopped Frimpong in the 63rd minute and after a long VAR check, the referee decided it was worth a red card. But the guests scored the second goal with 10 men and then decided to defend hard for the rest of the match. When Frimpong scored for 2-1 20 minutes before the end, a first sign of hope sparked the home crowd and then came in Schick and undeservedly scored two goals for the quarterfinals. Among other games was the game between Brighton and Roma. Unlike the Villarreal – Marseille game, which ended 3-1 and provided much drama (since it was 3-0 right until the end), Daniele De Rossi didn’t allow such a scenario in England, and suffered only a 1-0 defeat, more than enough for the quarterfinal (first match 4-0). He was without some key players, as Romelu Lukaku, Renato Sanches, Chris Smalling and Tammy Abraham were all injured, and Paulo Dybala was on the bench, but he focused on tactical discipline, and tried to get to Brighton’s goal via his new quick attack Tommaso Baldanzi, Sardar Azmoun and Nicola Zalewski. They managed one shot on target for the whole 90 minutes (compared to Brighton’s five) but they again had Rade Svilar on goal and the young Serbian made some key saves during the game and allowed only a great volley from Danny Welbeck. Not enough for the quarterfinal. What a goal by Danny welbeck for Brighton against Roma pic.twitter.com/N5OUTs88uH— Ikechukwu (@ikechukubigname) March 14, 2024 UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE – ROUND OF 16Second legThursday Slavia Praha – AC Milan 1-3 (0-2)/Jurasek 85 – Pulisic 34, Loftus-Cheek 36, Leao 45+6/AC Milan win 7-3 on aggregateVillareal – Olympique Marseille 3-1 (1-0)/Capoue 32, Sorloth 54, Mosquera 88 – Clauss 90+4/Marseille win 5-3 on aggregateRangers – Benfica 0-1 (0-0)/Rafa SIlva 66/Benfica win 3-2 on aggregateWest Ham – Freiburg 5-0 (2-0)/Paqueta 9, Bowen 32, Creswell 52, Kudus 77, 85/West Ham win 5-1 on aggregateLeverkusen – Qarabag 3-2 (0-0)/Frimpong 72, Schick 90+3, 90+8 – Zoubir 58, Juninho 68/Leverkusen win 5-4 on aggregateLiverpool – Sparta Praha 6-1 (4-1)/Nunez 7, Clark 8, Salah 10, Gakpo 14, 55, Szoboszlai 48 – Birmancevic 42/Liverpool win 11-2 on aggregateBrighton – Roma 1-0 (1-0)/Welbeck 37/Roma win 4-1 on aggregateAtalanta – Sporting 2-1 (0-1)/Lookman 46, Scammaca 59 – Goncalves 34/Atalanta win 3-2 on aggregate
