West Ham United's Pablo Fornals and Manuel Lanzini celebrate their second goal scored by Andriy Yarmolenko in a 2-1 win over Sevilla on March 17, 2022.TONY OBRIEN/Reuters
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the winning goal for Barcelona to secure a 2-1 victory over Galatasaray on Thursday and send the struggling European powerhouse into the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
Fellow Spanish team Sevilla was knocked out of the competition it has won a record six times, losing to West Ham after Ukraine forward Andriy Yarmolenko scored the decisive goal in extra time. West Ham won 2-0 to advance 2-1 on aggregate.
Aubameyang netted from close range four minutes into the second half as Barcelona came from a goal down to maintain its chances of ending the season with a trophy.
The Spanish giant, which is playing Europe’s second-tier competition after failing to advance to the Champions League knockout stages for the first time since 2004, was held to a 0-0 draw at home by the Turkish club in the first leg last week.
Rangers reached the quarter-finals on a 4-2 aggregate score despite losing 2-1 to Red Star at Belgrade. Atalanta also advanced 4-2 on aggregate after winning 1-0 at Bayer Leverkusen while Portuguese club Braga progressed after holding Monaco 1-1.
Sevilla’s cross-city rival Betis was also eliminated by Eintracht Frankfurt in extra time.
Lyon beat Porto 2-1 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw at home.
Leipzig advanced automatically as its opponent Spartak Moscow was among Russian clubs expelled from international competitions after the country’s military invasion of Ukraine.
In the inaugural Europa Conference League, Leicester advanced 3-2 on aggregate despite a 2-1 away loss to Rennes.
Jose Mourinho’s Roma needed an injury-time equalizer by England forward Tammy Abraham to salvage a 1-1 home draw against Vitesse and secure a spot in the quarter-finals.
Of the four Dutch teams in the last 16, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord cruised into the quarter-finals while AZ Alkmaar and Vitesse were knocked out.
Marseille, PAOK, Bod/Glimt and Slavia Prague also advanced.
TEN-MAN EVERTON BEATS NEWCASTLE
LIVERPOOL — Alex Iwobi’s goal in the ninth minute of stoppage time gave 10-man Everton a 1-0 victory over Newcastle on Thursday that ended a four-game losing streak in the Premier League and boosted the club’s hopes of avoiding a relegation scrap.
Everton’s recent run of poor form had seen it drop to just above the relegation zone when Brazilian midfielder Allan was sent off in the 83rd minute, it seemed a point was the best Frank Lampard’s team could hope for.
But with 14 minutes of time added because of the incursion of a protester who tied himself to a goalpost and the VAR check for Allan’s dismissal, Iwobi finished off a quick attack with one of Everton’s most important goals of the season.
It was only Everton’s third top-flight win since September, but it now has a three-point gap to 18th-place Watford with two matchers in hand.
For Newcastle, it was a second straight loss after an eight-game unbeaten run that saw the team build a comfortable gap to the teams around the relegation zone.
TFC TRADES DEFENDER TO MINNESOTA UNITED
Toronto FC has confirmed the departure of Jamaican international defender Kemar Lawrence via trade with Minnesota United. In exchange, Toronto gets the rights to Sean O’Hearn, a Georgetown defender taken 38th overall in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft, and a conditional US$50,000 in general allocation money in either 2022 or 2023 if certain performance metrics are met. The 23-year-old O’Hearn, who can play fullback and centre back, played with TFC forward Ifunanyachi Achara at Georgetown University. Both were part of the 2019 Hoyas squad that won the NCAA Division I title.
The Associated Press,
with a report from The Canadian Press