Anderlecht grabbed a late equaliser against Manchester United, Ajax saw off Schalke, Celta Vigo won a Genk thriller and Besiktas shook Lyon both on and off the field.
The first legs of the Europa League quarter-finals were played this evening and there were quite a few surprises.
Manchester United are the favourites to win the tournament and seemed to be coasting to a victory in Belgium, but Anderlecht snatched a late goal with Leander Dendoncker’s bullet header for the 1-1 result.
Anderlecht grabbed a late equaliser against Manchester United, Ajax saw off Schalke, Celta Vigo won a Genk thriller and Besiktas shook Lyon both on and off the field.
The first legs of the Europa League quarter-finals were played this evening and there were quite a few surprises.
Manchester United are the favourites to win the tournament and seemed to be coasting to a victory in Belgium, but Anderlecht snatched a late goal with Leander Dendoncker’s bullet header for the 1-1 result.
Celta Vigo completed an impressive comeback in their 3-2 thriller with Genk, which also leaves qualification wide open.
Ajax swept Schalke 04 aside 2-0 thanks to a brace from Davy Klaassen, but it could’ve been a lot worse, as the hosts also hit the woodwork twice.
Olympique Lyonnais knocked Roma out of the Europa League by recovering from a trailing situation to win at home and they did it again with Besiktas.
The game was delayed by 45 minutes after Turkish fans threw objects and began attacking people in the stands, forcing hundreds of Lyon supporters to flee on to the pitch.
Once the match began, veteran Ryan Babbel broke the deadlock just 15 minutes in with an angled drive.
The hosts were unlucky, rattling the woodwork twice with Corentin Tolisso and Nabil Fekir.
Just as it seemed to be over, Lyon managed to turn the game around completely with two goals in the space of two minutes.
First Tolisso got on the end of a deflected Mathieu Valbuena free kick, then Jeremy Morel pounced on a howler from Besiktas goalkeeper Fabri.
The second legs will be played on April 20.