Liverpool raced to a five goal win over Czech champion Sparta and took a very big step closer to securing a quarter-final ticket on Thursday.
Darwin Nunez was the hero of the day as he scored twice to help Liverpool rout Sparta 5-1.
Nunez’s right-footed shot from 25 meters (yards) flew past goalkeeper Peter Vindahl to double Liverpool’s early lead after Alexis Mac Allister’s penalty in Prague in the first leg of the round of 16.
The Uruguay international’s first strike of the evening was the 1,000th Liverpool goal scored under manager Jurgen Klopp, whose team will host the second leg next week at Anfield.
Elsewhere, Bundesliga leader Bayer Leverkusen made a long trip to Baku and needed a stoppage-time equalizer to draw 2-2 with Qarabag and extend their German record unbeaten run to 35 games across all competitions this season.
Substitute striker Patrik Schick rose in the area to head in an equalizer after another substitute Florian Wirtz had reduced Qarabag’s lead to one in 70th.
In Italy, English clubside, Brighton suffered humiliation at Stadio Olimpico after Roma pumped 4 goals past them.
Paulo Dybala and Romelu Lukaku gave the hosts 2-0 lead in the first half. Gianluca Mancini and Bryan Cristante finished it off in the second.
Roma has won eight of 10 matches across all competitions — with only one loss, to Serie A leader Inter Milan, since De Rossi replaced the fired Jose Mourinho.
In France, Marseille keeps on scoring for new coach Jean-Louis Gasset, beating 10-man Villarreal 4-0 for a total of 16 goals in four games under him.
Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted from the spot and added one more for his 33rd career goal in the Europa League to improve his own competition record. Marseille also got a goal from Jordan Veretout and own goal from Yerson Mosquera.