Europa League scores, takeaways: Rangers knock out Dortmund; Barcelona advance; Malinovskyi makes statement


The play-off round for the Europa League knockout stage is (nearly) in the books after eight games on Thursday. FC Barcelona cruised into the last 16 with a convincing win at Napoli. In other action, Borussia Dortmund could not overcome Erling Haaland’s injury and were rightfully bounced from the competition by an inspired Rangers, while RB Leipzig scored a big win on the road to advance.

You can watch the Europa League all season long on Paramount+ . Here’s everything to know from Thursday’s action.

Europa League scores

RB Leipzig 3, Real Sociedad 1 (RB Leipzig advance on aggregate, 5-3)
Dinamo Zagreb 1, Sevilla 0 (Sevilla advance on aggregate, 3-2)
Porto 2, Lazio 2 (Porto advance on aggregate, 4-3)
Atalanta 3, Olympiacos 0 (Atalanta advance on aggregate, 5-1)
Rangers 2, Dortmund 2 (Rangers advance on aggregate, 6-4)
Real Betis 0, Zenit 0 (Real Betis advance on aggregate, 3-2)
Barcelona 4, Napoli 2 (Barcelona advance on aggregate, 5-3)
Braga 2, Sheriff 0 (Braga advance on penalty kicks after 2-2 aggregate)

Who has advanced?

Round of 16 teams who qualified via playoffs:

  • RB Leipzig
  • Atalanta
  • Porto
  • Sevilla
  • Barcelona
  • Real Betis
  • Rangers
  • Braga

Round of 16 teams who qualified as group winners:

  • West Ham
  • Lyon
  • Monaco
  • Bayer Leverkusen
  • Eintracht Frankfurt
  • Spartak Moscow
  • Red Star Belgrade
  • Galatasaray

The Europa League round of 16 draw will take place on Friday.

Brilliant Barca make another statement

Barcelona cruised into the next round with a convincing win in Naples, scoring three times in the first half to blow the hosts away. The visitors were smart and sharp in their passing, they took their best chances and they had this game all but over at halftime. Jordi Alba, Frenkie de Jong, Gerard Pique and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored in the win, with de Jong’s goal being the best of the bunch:

Barca followed up the four goals at Valencia over the weekend with four more here, announcing themselves as a team to be reckoned with as the new signings in attack continue to gel. Aubameyang now has four of the team’s last eight goals.

Malinovskyi makes statement

While most of the world watches on in horror as Russia violently invades Ukraine, some players are looking to make statements on the pitch in support of Ukraine’s people. One of those players is Ukraine international Ruslan Malinovskyi, who scored twice in the second half as Atalanta beat Olympiacos 3-0 to cruise into the next round. Malinovskyi produced both of his goals with just perfect strikes, and after he scored he went to the camera to show off his shirt underneath that had be written on. The text read “No war in Ukraine.” Here’s the goal and the moment:

Here’s a closer look:

Inspiring and impactful. Here’s more on how the soccer world is dealing with the fallout in Ukraine.

Leipzig advance, score goal of the day

Goal of the day is a tough one because de Jong’s strike was so good, but I love the power that Andre Silva put behind this one in RB Leipzig’s win at Real Sociedad. He went near post upper 90 with a sweet, clean strike that even surprised him. Take a look:

Rangers were simply better than Dortmund

I’m convinced this tie would have gone the other way had Haaland not missed the two legs, but credit goes to Rangers for taking advantage of a weak Dortmund defense. They were unpredictable in attack, their quick passing got players into space, and they took their chances well. Six goals across two games for the Scottish side, and they are a team to watch going forward. 

On the other side, the loss for Dortmund is another disappointment following their elimination from the UEFA Champions League, but they’ve also continued to deal with so many injuries that have hurt the team’s chemistry. 





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