Martial clinches victory as United cruise to last eight

Substitute Anthony Martial secured Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s underwhelming side a comeback win against LASK on a night when Manchester United’s progress to the Europa League quarterfinals was never in doubt.

Five months on from hitting five without reply in Austria, the sides belatedly resumed battle at an empty Old Trafford with the outcome of the last-16 encounter all but certain.

LASK were far better than that strange night in March and Philipp Wiesinger’s stunner gave the fans back in Linz something to cheer about, but Jesse Lingard quickly levelled before Martial wrapped up a 2-1 win on the night and 7-1 triumph on aggregate.

A quarter-final clash with Copenhagen awaits in Cologne on Monday. Copenhagen reached the last eight of a European competition for the first time after overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg against Istanbul

Basaksehir to win 3-1 on aggregate.

Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan also reached the quarter-finals last night. Shakhtar, the 2009 Uefa Cup winners, won 3-0 in the second leg against Wolfsburg to complete a 5-1 victory on aggregate, five months after the first leg was played.

Inter Milan earned their place by beating Getafe 2-0 in a single-leg game, with goals from Romelu Lukaku and Christian Eriksen

The quarter-finals will be played in a new tournament format used by Uefa during the pandemic. All games from the quarter-finals onward are being played in Germany over a single leg.