DBasia.news – Slavia Praha stopped Rangers’ journey from the Europa League after winning 2-0 in the second leg of the last 16 on Friday (19/3).
Visiting the Ibrox Stadium with a 1-1 result in the first meeting, Jindich Trpisovsky’s Slavia surprised the hosts through Peter Olayinka’s quick goal in the 14th minute.
Rangers, newly crowned Scottish champions under Steven Gerrard, then played with ten men following a second yellow card to defender Leon Balogun in the 73rd minute.
A minute from the incident, Rangers goalpost Allan McGregor gave way for the second time, this time it was Nicolae Stanciu who listed his name on the scoreboard.
In the remaining minutes, there were no additional goals from both sides and Slavia also had the right to qualify for the last eight thanks to a 3-1 aggregate advantage. Elsewhere, the Dutch giants Ajax won 5-0 on aggregate over the Swiss representatives of Young Boys.
After winning 3-0 in the first meeting, Ajax who visited the Wankdorf Stadium showed their quality by scoring a quick goal in the 20th minute through David Neres.
Their new victory was secured at the start of the second half after Dusan Tadic completed a penalty to simultaneously make Ajax qualify for the next phase.
Currently, Erik ten Haag’s men are on a five-win streak in all competitions, with them scoring 13 goals and conceding just once. Turning to Spain, the host Villarreal again recorded a score of 2-0 when they met Dynamo Kiev.
In the second leg which was held at the Estadio de la Ceramica last night, Villarreal should thank the striker Gerard Moreno who bought up two of his team’s winning goals, all of which came in the first half.
With this Villarreal has the right to advance to the last eight after winning 4-0 on aggregate. Meanwhile, Granada’s 2-1 loss in the second leg against Molde did not affect their qualification.
Granada, who won 2-0 in the first meeting, finally escaped 3-2 on aggregate, and they survived thanks to an away goal scored by striker Roberto Soldado.
The draw for the Europa League quarter-finals will be held on Friday, 19 March 2021, starting at 18:00 WIB. The drawing ceremony took place at the House of European Football at UEFA headquarters, Nyon, Switzerland.