Liverpool rolls into Europa League quarters
LIVERPOOL — Mohamed Salah scored one goal and set up three to help Liverpool demolish Sparta Prague 6-1 and march into the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday.
After winning 5-1 the opening leg of their last 16 tie in Prague, Liverpool scored four in the opening 14 minutes at Anfield to advance on a massive 11-2 aggregate score.
Sparta had no answer to Liverpool’s high pressure.
Salah seized the ball on the right of the area before shooting inside the far post over Sparta goalkeeper Peter Vindahl for his 20th goal of the season, becoming the first Liverpool player to score at least 20 goals in seven straight seasons.
Salah, who injured his hamstring with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations in January, started after having been used as a substitute in both the first leg in Prague and a 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
Darwin Nunez opened the rout with a clinical low finish seven minutes into the game after scoring two in Prague.
A minute later, Salah won the ball on the edge of the box to feed 19-year-old Bobby Clark to score his first senior goal for Liverpool to jump 2-0 up.
Salah then scored before finding Cody Gakpo with a cross to make it 4-0.
Dominik Szoboszlai made it 5-1 in the second half with a deflected shot before Gakpo added his second.
In Germany, Patrik Schick came off the bench against 10-man Qarabag to score two goals in stoppage time to complete Leverkusen’s 3-2 comeback win and secure a quarter-final spot for the Bundesliga leader.
In a dramatic second half, Abdellah Zoubir and Juninho gave the visitors a 2-0 advantage before Jeremie Frimpong started the comeback.
Leverkusen made the quarters 5-4 on aggregate to extend its unbeaten streak to 37 games across all competitions.
AC Milan cruised past 10-man Slavia Prague 3-1 to reach the quarter-finals. Milan advanced 7-3 on aggregate after winning the first leg of the last 16 tie 4-2 at San Siro a week ago.
The competition gives the Italian powerhouse its only realistic chance to win a trophy this season after it was eliminated from the Italian Cup and currently trails Serie A leader Inter Milan by 16 points.