Paris (AFP)
Manchester United made short work of Austria's Linz ASK 5-0 in Austria, while Basel outperformed Frankfurt 3-0 in Germany Thursday in the Europa League first knockout stages disrupted by coronavirus, matches Seville-AS Rome and Inter Milan-Getafe having been postponed.
The matches between Frankfurt and Basel, Linz Ask-Manchester, Wolfsburg-Shakhtar Donetsk and Olympiakos-Wolverhampton have been played behind closed doors, although they were well contested.
Odion Ighalo, the Red Devils striker, therefore performed the evening's gesture in a deserted stadium. However the goal of the Nigerian international (28th) would have deserved some applause: a control in 3 juggles and a very beautiful strike under the bar of Alexander Schlager. The beginning of the nightmare for the Austrians trained by the French Valérien Ismaël.
Daniel James (58th), then Juan Mata (82nd), Mason Greenwood (90th + 2) Andreas Pereira two minutes later made the mark worse.
Same treatment or almost in Frankfurt for the men of Adolf Hutter, where there too the stadium was without spectators. Basel did not go into detail with three goals from Samuele Campo in the 27th on a very nice free kick, then Bua (73rd) and Frei in the 85th.
The pill is hard to swallow for Eintracht, which agreed that the return match, if it takes place as scheduled on March 19, will take place in Frankfurt, given the context related to the coronavirus. Even if the probability of seeing this match postponed, like all European competitions, is very high.
In the other matches of these first knockout rounds, Istanbul defeated Copenhagen 1-0 at home, with a goal by Edith Visca in the 88th, Shakhtar Donetsk won 2-1 at Wolfsburg, while Olympiacos and Wolverhampton neutralized 1-1.
Finally, Lerverkusen won 3-1 against the Glasgow Rangers thanks to goals from Kai Havertz (37th), Charles Aranguiz (67th) and Leon Bailey (88th), George Edmundson reducing the gap to 75th for the Scots, yet at home in an overcrowded Ibrox Stadium.
Return matches must be held normally on March 19, except in the event of postponement or cancellations related to the cioronavirus. UEFA is due to rule on this on Tuesday.
© 2020 AFP