Marcel Sabitzer with Manchester United and Gernot Trauner with Feyenoord Rotterdam are in the quarter-finals of the Europa League. The “Red Devils” also won 1-0 away against Betis Sevilla on Thursday after a 4-1 win in the previous week. Meanwhile, Feyenoord outclassed Shakhtar Donetsk 7-1. However, Philipp Lienhart and Michael Gregoritsch were eliminated with SC Freiburg. After the 1-0 win in Turin, Juventus also won the second leg in Breisgau 2-0.
Freiburg had declared the home game against the former Italian series champions to be a football festival. Lienhart was unable to take part on the field because he was unable to recover in time after suffering a thigh injury. Michael Gregoritsch, on the other hand, was there from the start. The home side had the first big chance of the game, but Matthias Ginter failed with a header at Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny (22nd), Gregoritsch’s follow-up shot from a tight angle was blocked.
The “Old Lady”, who was only seventh in Serie A after a deduction of 15 points, then proved that she had an offensive urge even without Angel di Maria and Federico Chiesa on the bench. The supposed 1:0 of the Italians by Dusan Vlahovic was annulled because the attacker was offside in front of his dust-kick. Shortly before the break, Freiburg defender Manuel Gulde, who had already been warned, blocked a shot with his hand and VAR intervened. Gulde had to leave the field with yellow-red, Vlahovic converted from the penalty point with a lot of risk.
Freiburg didn’t give up, Gregoritsch came close to the goal with a free kick from a long distance shortly after the break. Juventus, who want to make the leap into the Champions League via the Europa League, did not let the lead be taken away. Substitute Chiesa scored deep in injury time.
In Rotterdam the game started with a 1-1 starting position. Trauner started for Feyenoord for the first time since his knee operation in December. The defender played his part in the Dutch team’s quick lead by winning the ball before Santiago Gimenez made it 1-0 (9th). Orkun Kökcü scored to make it 2-0 (24th) and added from the penalty spot before the break (38th). Shakhtar had chances but was unable to convert them. The next ball lost by the Ukrainians after the break was again reflected on the scoreboard.
Oussama Idrissi also scored a brace in a row, and by the 67th minute Feyenoord had even increased it to 7-0, surpassing the 6-0 against Sturm Graz in the group phase. To the delight of the Ukrainian fans who had traveled with them, their team at least scored the consolation goal shortly before the end.
Manchester United had traveled to Andalusia with a reassuring cushion. Betis tried to score quickly, but the English hardly allowed anything. Marcus Rashford finally made the decision with a magnificent shot (56th), after having missed two good chances shortly before. It was the 27th goal of the season for England’s internationals. A few minutes later Sabitzer came into play at United.
FC Sevilla, who won the duel with Fenerbahce after a 2-0 win in the previous week despite a 0-1 defeat in Istanbul, had to worry. In the Conference League, Lech Poznan and Fiorentina are in the top eight teams. KAA Gent had already done this on Wednesday.