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Europa League: Man Utd and Arsenal through, Spurs and Rangers out – as it happened

This article is more than 3 years old

Spurs were humiliated in Zagreb, Manchester United were poor but still beat Milan, and nine-man Rangers lost a bad-tempered game to Slavia Prague

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Thu 18 Mar 2021 18.26 EDTFirst published on Thu 18 Mar 2021 12.45 EDT
Key events
Paul Pogba with the breakthrough for United.
Paul Pogba with the breakthrough for United. Photograph: Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images
Paul Pogba with the breakthrough for United. Photograph: Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images

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Key events

Steven Gerrard has successfully avoided BT Sport’s cameras, and with the end of their broadcast I too am going to check out. Here are all tonight’s match reports again. Bye!

Steven Gerrard and Jindrich Trpisovsky are in conversation, each surrounded by a couple of aids, and obviously talking about whatever Ondrej Kudela said to Glen Kamara. It’s fair to say that it is not exactly a friendly chat.

And Ewan Murray was at Ibrox to see Rangers’ elimination:

The comprehensive nature of this victory for Slavia Prague was more striking than the fact it happened at all. Rangers suffered a Europa League defeat over 90 minutes at the 13th time of asking; the playing of the closing stages with nine men rather endorsed an uncharacteristically dismal evening for Steven Gerrard and his team.

Gerrard will reflect on the first of those dismissals, issued for a crazy Kemar Roofe challenge, as a turning point in this tie. Nonetheless, Slavia always looked more competent and streetwise than the Scottish champions. Having swatted Leicester aside in the last 32, Slavia are rather enjoying these trips to British shores. They will watch the quarter-final draw with relish as Gerrard denies his players any opportunity to ponder what might have been. There is, after all, the small matter of an Old Firm game on Sunday.

Much more here:

Jamie Jackson has filed his report on Manchester United’s victory in Milan:

Manchester United squeezed into the quarter-finals the hard way: coming to Milan and earning the victory required. In doing so, Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s men won their biggest game of the campaign, keeping alive the hope of European glory.

By the close United had survived – Shaw’s late intervention as Alexis Saelemaekers lurked was indicative of a nervy finish – with Paul Pogba the tie-winning hero, scoring the vital goal almost instantly after entering for the second half. Yet to reach the final they have to sharpen their act: United’s attack is not currently a prolific one and it may cost them when it truly counts.

Much more here:

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Luke Shaw thinks United were rubbish:

I’ll be honest, we weren’t good at all. Especially first half, we were awful. The first 10, 15 minutes, we started well, kept control of the ball, but it was like a switch, we turned off. We kept giving away the ball and inviting pressure on ourselves, and maybe we were lucky. The most important thing was the result and getting through to the next round, but we know we can play better than tonight. It’s a very good win. We’re through, we’ve got players coming back, the squad’s looking better than it did last night, so it’s good times now.

And a brief word on his England call-up:

I’ve been out the fold for quite a while. I’ve always had ambitions to get back into the squad. I’ve done that, and I’m really looking forward to being there.

Steven Davis is disappointed:

I don’t think there was a great difference between the teams. We probably didn’t test the goalkeeper enough, and then obviously the sending-off made it very difficult. If we’d have performed over the two legs the way we know we’re capable of we’d have gone through, so I’m disappointed. It was hard to get rhythm in the game, they seemed to go down very easily and it was a difficult night for the referee. It has been a positive run. The immediate emotion is one of disappointment but we’ve got a massive game on Sunday so we’ll look forward to that one.

Key Europa League dates

Quarter- and semi-final draw
Starts tomorrow, Friday 19 March, at 12pm GMT.

Quarter-finals
First legs: 8 April
Second legs: 15 April

Semi-finals
First legs: 29 April
Second legs: 6 May

Final
Wednesday 26 May

Nine-man Rangers beaten by Slavia Prague!

Rangers 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-3) It was pretty emphatic, but also disappointingly bad-tempered at times. Happily Slavia’s goalkeeper, Ondrej Kolar, has returned to their bench with a few plasters slapped on his face, clearly not seriously injured.

Manchester United seal their place in the quarter-finals!

Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) It’s all over, and Manchester United are in the hat!

Photograph: Tullio Puglia - UEFA/UEFA/Getty Images
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Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) McTominay does some excellent work, carrying the ball to the right touchline, pushing it past Theo Hernandez and drawing the foul, eating up some precious seconds.

Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) A booking for Luke Shaw and some good defending from the resulting free-kick, and United have a goal kick, about 90 seconds to play.

Rangers 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-3) Seven minutes of stoppage time stand between Rangers and elimination.

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Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) They are into stoppage time in Milan, and there will be five long minutes of it!

Rangers 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-3) While that’s all happening, Ondrej Kudela has leaned into Glen Kamara, covered his mouth with his hands and whispered something into his ear that has enraged him. No lip-reader is ever going to get the chance to decipher that, but sadly I fear we can imagine what it might have been.

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Rangers 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-3) Handbags! One of the Slavia players goes down, the ball is kicked into him by a Rangers player, bounces away, and is kicked back into him again, on neither occasion with any great force. The SLavia man stays down as if viciously assaulted, various players get upset about it, and Kudela and Goldson are both booked.

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Here’s Paul Doyle’s report on Tottenham’s humiliation in Zagreb:

Tottenham’s season is unravelling. A bitter inquest looms. Four days after flopping in the north London derby, José Mourinho’s team fell out of the Europa League in spectacular, humiliating fashion.

Their trip to Dinamo was supposed to be little more than a formality after their comfortable two-goal win in the first leg last week but Spurs produced an anaemic and disjointed display in perfect contrast to that of their hosts. Mislav Orsic’s extraordinary hat-trick crowned a famous win for the Croatian champions.

Much more here:

Rangers 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-3) Rangers totally fluff an offside trap, quite an accomplishment given that they’re now basically playing with a back one, and it quite a challenge for him to not stay in a straight line, but Slavia can’t punish them.

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Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot has come on for Milan against United, and been booked. Milan have 12 minutes to find the goal they need to take this to extra time.

GOAL! Rangers 0-2 Slavia Prague!

Rangers 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-3) That is a fabulous free-kick from Nicolae Stanciu, who sends the ball way over the wall and then somehow dipping over McGregor’s despairing dive but under the bar!

Nicolae Stanciu doubles Slavia Prague’s lead. Photograph: Ian MacNicol/Reuters
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Rangers go down to nine men!

Rangers 0-1 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-2) Leon Balogun takes a heavy first touch, and takes out Masopust as he attempts to make amends. That’s a second yellow card, sir!

Leon Balogun gets his marching orders. Photograph: Ian MacNicol/Reuters
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Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) Lindelof makes a sliding block at the near post as Milan look for an equaliser. The home side loudly appeal for handball, but the referee waves play on and there’s been plenty of time for VAR to tell the referee that something was amiss if something was amiss.

Rangers 0-1 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-2) Rangers still need a goal, and Nathan Patterson surges into the right side of the area before blasting over the bar.

Rangers 0-1 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-2) Kolar has been taken off on a stretcher, and Matyas Vagner, the 18-year-old reserve keeper, has come on.

Red card! Rangers go down to 10 men!

A long ball from right to left finds Kemar Roofe running into the area. Ondřej Kolář comes out to try to claim it. Roofe jumps with his right foot raised to shoulder height, gets the ball, and keeps going into the Slavia keeper. His eyes were on the ball, his intention was surely to win it, but his boot continued into Kolar’s head, and the referee brings out his red card! Roofe was only on the pitch for six minutes!

Kemar Roofe is shown a straight red for a foul on goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar. Photograph: Getty Images
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Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) Calhanoglu smashes the ball straight into Marry Maguire’s face from no distance at all.

Elsewhere, Ajax are now 2-0 ahead at Young Boys, and lead 5-0 on aggregate. Young Boys just had the ball in the net, but VAR spoiled their fun by noticing an offside.

Milan 0-1 Manchester United (agg: 1-2) Saelemaekers cuts in from the left and has a low shot that Henderson saves, and then Fred clears into Krunic and the ball deflects towards goal, but straight at Henderson and nowhere near hard enough to trouble him.

GOAL! Milan 0-1 Manchester United (Pogba, 48 mins)

He’s only scored within three minutes! James’s shot from the right leads to chaos. Pogba taps it back to Fred, who can’t get a shot away. The ball rolls to Fernandes, who is tackled by Kessie, and the ball rolls to Pogba, who feints, spies Donnarumma taking a fateful half-step to his left, and shoots in at the near post!

Photograph: Mattia Ozbot/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
Pogba scores! Photograph: Daniele Mascolo/Reuters
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Milan 0-0 Manchester United (agg: 1-1) Marcus Rashford is the player to make way at the break to make room for Pogba.

It’s half-time in all the 8pm kick-offs. Krunic had an excellent chance for Milan just before the break, but sidefooted his volley wide. So the scores as they stand:

Milan 0-0 Manchester United (agg: 1-1)
Rangers 0-1 Slavia Prague (agg: 1-2)
Villarreal 2-0 Dynamo Kyiv (agg: 4-0)
Young Boys 0-1 Ajax (agg: 4-0)

A bit more from Mourinho, who is told that Glenn Hoddle on BT Sport has had some harsh words for his team:

I don’t need Mr Hoddle’s words to feel hurt. I totally respect everything that somebody connected or not connected with the club says about us tonight. I think we have to accept it. The problem will be if some accept in a positive way, in feeling hurt by the critics. Another story is if you don’t hurt, you don’t care, you don’t read, and that is another problem. I don’t need external critics, because I feel extremely hurt.

On behalf of my team, even if some of them don’t share my feelings and my emotions, I can only apologise to Tottenham’s supporters, and I hope the players feel the same way I do. Until the last day of the season we have to try to do our best.

More from Mourinho:

I’m disappointed at the difference in attitude between one team and another. I feel sorry that my team is the team that didn’t bring to the game, not just the basics of football I believe the basics of life, which is to respect our jobs and to give everything.

Mourinho: 'What I feel goes much further than sadness'

Jose Mourinho lays into his players’ attitude here:

If I forget the last 10 minutes of extra time, where we did something to get a different result and to go through, in the 90 minutes and in the first half of extra time, there was one team that decided to leave everything on the pitch. They left everything there, sweat, energy, blood, at the end of the game they left even tears of happiness. Very humble, very committed, and I have to praise them. On the other side, my team - I repeat, my team, I am there - that didn’t look like it was playing an important match. And if for any one of them it’s not an important match, for me it is. And I believe that for every Tottenham fan at home, every match matters. Another attitude is needed.

To say that I feel sad is not enough, because what I feel goes much further than sadness. I just left Dinamo’s dressing room, where I went to praise the guys. I feel sorry that one team that is not my team won the game based on attitude. So I feel more than sad. That’s it. Football is not about players who think they have more quality than others. The basic of football is attitude, and they beat us on that.

Before the game I told the players the risks of a bad attitude. At half-time I told them the risk of playing the way they are playing. And it happened, because I believe the players only realised the game was at risk when they scored a second goal and it went to extra time.

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Milan 0-0 Manchester United (agg 1-1) Alexis Saelemaekers has a good low shot from the edge of the area, but Dean Henderson turns it behind.

GOAL! Villarreal 2-0 Dynamo Kyiv (Moreno, 36)

Gerard Moreno has scored his second goal of the night to put Villarreal 4-0 ahead on aggregate, and they will surely join Ajax in the next round.

Orsic’s three finishes were so, so good. The second was a pretty straightforward chance, but he still stuck it in the top corner with a flourish. The third was a lovely run and finish, but cheapened by some genuinely dismal defending: Bale refusing to track back, Aurier deciding to attempt a backheel rabona tackle, and then Sissoko and Ndombele refusing to put in any kind of challenge. The first was just straightforward, no-quibble magnificent.

“I can’t believe it’s really gone from getting knocked out in the Champions League final to getting knocked out by Dinamo Zagreb in the round of 16 of the Europa league,” writes Owen Dodd. “I think if we continue the form we are at in the league, it will be time for Mourinho to go.” This is certainly a grim result, the kind of defeat that will inevitably cause everything to be questioned.

DINAMO JE U ČETVRTFINALU @EuropaLeague 💥🔥🤪🤪🤪🤪🚀🚀🚀🚀🔥🔥🔥🔥💙💙⚽️⚽️⚽️ GASI SVEEEEE 💥💥💥💥😎😎😎😁👏🏻👏🏻💪🏻

🏆 Dinamo - Tottenham 3:0 (3:2) 💥#dinamozagreb #UEL pic.twitter.com/QciHWD45XB

— GNK Dinamo (@gnkdinamo) March 18, 2021

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