Europa League Round of 16 Second Leg: Dortmund Draws, Napoli Stops
The second leg of the round of 16 saw many big teams struggle to get a ticket to the next round, such as Dortmund. However, the most regrettable thing was that Napoli was eliminated.
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Atletico, after crushing Copenhagen in the first leg, continued to have a leisurely victory with a familiar score of 1-0 at Wanda Metropolitano. The author of the only goal for Los Rojiblancos was Kevin Gameiro. In the end, Diego Simeone's team won with a score of 5-1.
Meanwhile, in the highlight match of the round of 16, between the two current Bundesliga and Serie A runners-up, Napoli, despite their best efforts, could only win 2-0, thereby tying the aggregate score at 3-3. However, RB Leipzig was still the team that won the ticket to the next round thanks to the away goals rule.
Other notable names that had to say goodbye to the Europa League 2017/18 after the round of 16 were Nice, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Celtic Glasgow. Dortmund almost fell into this group when Atalanta led 1-0 from the 11th minute to the 83rd minute. If the visitors from Italy had been more careful, Dortmund would have suffered a humiliating defeat.
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| Zenit had a resounding victory over Celtic to advance. |
For any team in the knockout stages, a 1-0 home win is a huge advantage as they have not conceded an away goal. Steaua Bucharest and Celtic both knew they would frustrate their opponents if they scored just one goal, but both sides were ultimately crushed by the ferocity of Lazio and Zenit.
Defender Branislav Ivanovic was once seen as a liability for Chelsea, but it was he who opened the scoring for Zenit. Ivanovic headed in the opener in the eighth minute, with Zenit's momentum continuing with Daler Kuzyaev's powerful long-range strike and Aleksandr Kokorin's close-range tap-in. Roberto Mancini's side progressed with a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Coach Mancini's former team, Lazio, even won more than Steaua despite losing 0-1 in the first leg, most notably with a hat-trick from striker Ciro Immobile.
Europa League Round of 16 Results
Lokomotiv Moscow 1-0 Nice (4-2)
Atletico Madrid 1-0 FC Copenhagen (5-1)
Dynamo Kiev 0-0 AEK Athens (1-1)
Lazio 5-1 FC Basel (5-2)
RB Leipzig 0-2 Napoli (3-3)
Sporting Lisbon 3-3 FC Astana (6-4)
Viktoria Plzen 2-0 Partizan Belgrade (3-1)
Villarreal 0-1 Lyon (1-4)
Zenit St. Petersburg 3-0 Celtic (3-1)
AC Milan 1-0 Ludogorets Razgrad (4-0)
Arsenal 1-2 Oestersunds FK (4-2)
Atalanta 1-1 Borussia Dortmund (3-4)
Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Spartak Moscow (4-3)
Braga 1-0 Marseille (1-3)
Salzburg 2-1 Real Sociedad (4-3)
