AC Milan preserve silverware ambition
AC Milan cruised past 10-man Slavia Prague 3-1 to reach the quarterfinals of the Europa League yesterday.
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 seven-time European champions have never won the second-tier Europa League or its predecessor, the UEFA Cup.
The competition gives the Italians their only realistic chance to win a trophy this season after they were eliminated from the Italian Cup and currently trail Serie A leader Inter Milan by 16 points.
Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-cheek and Rafael Lea˜ o put the result in the second leg beyond doubt with first-half goals in Prague. Pulisic netted from 10 metres with a low shot to open the scoring in the 33rd minute and Loftus-cheek tapped in the second into an empty net off a precise cross from Theo Herna´ndez before Lea˜o curled a right-footed drive from outside the area into the top right corner in first-half stoppage time.
Slavia got a consolation goal from substitute Matej Jura´sek.
Pulisic now has 11 goals in 38 appearances across all competitions in the US international’s first campaign with the Rossoneri to match his most productive season — the 2019-20 campaign at Chelsea.
Slavia’s early pressure lost steam after captain Toma´sˇ Holesˇ received a straight red card in the 20th minute for fouling his counterpart Davide Calabria.
West Ham made the last eight by routing Freiburg 5-0 at London Stadium.
The Hammers, last year’s Europa Conference League champions, reversed the first leg 1-0 defeat with the first-half goals from Lucas Paqueta´ and Jarrod Bowen.
Paqueta´ netted from close range after Toma´sˇ Soucek headed to him from a corner less than 10 minutes into the game. Bowen doubled the advantage in the 32nd.
Aaron Cresswell made it 3-0 early in the second half before Mohammed Kudus completed the rout with two late goals.
Marseille nearly blew a 4-0 lead from the first leg against Villarreal, who scored three goals yesterday before Jonathan Clauss netted in stoppage-time for the French visitors to seal a 5-3 aggregate victory.
Benfica advanced 3-2 on aggregate after a 1-0 win over Rangers.