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Arsenal, Manchester United and Rangers progress, while Leicester meekly bow out

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Thu 25 Feb 2021 17.12 ESTFirst published on Thu 25 Feb 2021 11.55 EST
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Slavia Prague players celebrate after the match.
Slavia Prague players celebrate after the match. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
Slavia Prague players celebrate after the match. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

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So does a much happier Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. “You remember defeats more than wins. Especially semi-finals. We’ve had three of them, so this group feels hurt, and wants to go further. We are a group that’s very tight. We’ve had a few setbacks and knocks, but it lifts us, we want to go further. If you fail in three semis, you want to do better and improve. It’s exciting. It’s a group of players that will improve, because we’re still a young team.”

A very gracious Brendan Rodgers speaks to BT Sport. “I felt I picked a team that could win the game. But we didn’t create enough tonight, and didn’t defend with any intensity. So we gave away two disappointing goals. The best team won, the best team got through, and we just have to recover and get ready for the weekend. They play a man-marking style so you have to be patient. We got into some good areas but lacked quality when we got there. We didn’t have enough quality to break them down. I don’t want to give too many excuses, but you can see what we have, injury wise. However, I still expected us to show up more. There will be learning from it. Tonight we weren’t good enough, and when you’re not good enough at this level you’ll get punished. Good luck to Slavia in the next round.”

The full-time scores of the 8pm kick-offs.

  • Leicester City 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg 0-2)
  • Manchester United 0-0 Real Sociedad (4-0)
  • Bayer Leverkusen 0-2 Young Boys (3-6)
  • Club Brugge 0-1 Dynamo Kiev (1-2)
  • Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 Krasnodar (4-2)
  • AC Milan 1-1 Red Star Belgrade (3-3; Milan win on away goals)
  • PSV Eindhoven 2-1 Olympiakos (4-5)
  • Roma 3-1 Braga (5-1)

FULL TIME: Manchester United 0-0 Real Sociedad (agg: 4-0)

A bit of a non-event at Old Trafford, but 17-year-old Shola Shoretire, now United’s youngest-ever representative in Europe, will remember it for ever. As may poor Axel Tuanzebe, whose first-ever senior goal was wiped out thanks to the antics of his slapstick partner Victor Lindelof.

17 year-old Shola Shoretire makes his debut for the Red Devils. Photograph: Dave Thompson/AP
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FULL TIME: Leicester City 0-2 Slavia Prague (agg: 0-2)

Slavia Prague run out worthy winners at the King Power. Leicester offered nothing. Brendan Rodgers is yet to crack the European code.

Slavia Prague progress... Photograph: Tim Keeton/EPA
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GOAL! PSV 2-1 Olympiacos (Kouka 88); agg 4-5. PSV were going through on away goals ... until Ahmed Hassan Kouka had his say.

GOAL! Club Brugge 0-1 Dynamo Kiev (Buyalsky 83); agg 1-2. Have the Ukrainian giants won it at the death?

GOAL! Bayer Leverkusen 0-2 Young Boys (Fassnacht 86); agg 3-6. Young Boys never lose it / Young boys always shiii-iii-iiine!

86 min: Slavia have done a proper number on Leicester here. Kolar has been barely troubled in their goal. “I played in a Neil Young covers band (two gigs) called Neil Young Boys,” writes/admits Jon Collin. “We’ll reform if the price is right.” Anyone interested should contact the Guardian in the first instance. We’ll take no more than 15%.

GOAL! Leicester City 0-2 Slavia Prague (Sima 79); agg 0-2

It looks like Slavia Prague have made it to the last 16. Abdallah Sima drops a shoulder, nudges the ball to his right, and whistles an unstoppable shot into the bottom right from 25 yards. Such a lovely strike, and Brendan Rodgers’ continental misery looks set to last another year.

Abdallah Sima doubles Slavia’s lead. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
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77 min: A little bit of history is made at Old Trafford, where Shola Shoretire, 17 years and 23 days old, replaces Mason Greenwood. He becomes the youngest player to represent Manchester United in Europe, beating a long-standing record held since the early 1980s by Norman Whiteside (17 years, 131 days).

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75 min: Leicester still haven’t forced Slavia Prague keeper Kolar into action. “Could you help with some academic research via your readers, both of them in fact?” asks Graham Moger, the old charmer. “Am I the only one who uncontrollably blurts out ‘Young Boys!’ in the style of the Village People, every time I see the team name in print? The crux of my research paper will indicate I’m not alone in that habit.” I’m more of a mid-era Duran Duran man myself.

71 min: Marko Gobeljic of Red Star Belgrade has been sent packing after picking up a second yellow in Milan. His team are currently going out on away goals, the tie delicately poised at 3-3 on aggregate. Stating the obvious, but that isn’t going to help, is it.

70 min: Leicester continue to huff and puff. Brendan Rodgers can boast a fine domestic record, with positive contributions made at Swansea, Liverpool, Celtic and now Leicester. But he’s been conspicuously poor in Europe so far. Can his side help him buck a miserable continental trend?

It’s not happening for Leicester and Jamie Vardy. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images
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67 min: Martial swans in from the left and sends a pearler towards the top right. Just over. That was such a sweet strike.

NO GOAL! Manchester United 0-0 Real Sociedad; agg 4-0

It’s a no-brainer of a decision. Poor Tuanzebe has the first senior goal of his career disallowed, thanks to the needlessly aggressive intervention of his defensive partner. Just a booking for Lindelof, which is probably right, it was clumsy rather than anything else, but you could certainly make an argument for his dismissal. Somewhere in the multiverse, Sociedad scored their penalty and United are down to nine men.

64 min: But this might be chalked off, because Lindelof has clumsily leapt into Bautista. Leaping high and out of control, his knee whacks into the poor guy’s startled coupon!

Axel Tuanzebe’s header finds the net, but Lindelof (2) flattens Bautista. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
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GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 Real Sociedad (Tuanzebe 63); agg 5-0

Tuanzebe rises highest at a corner to plant a glorious header into the top left. It’s his first senior goal!

60 min: Leicester get themselves some of that sweet triple-sub action. Albrighton, Amartey and Choudhury are replaced by Barnes, Ricardo and Castagne. Might as well roll the dice, with two goals required in the next half-hour.

59 min: So here comes 18-year-old Amad Diallo, making his first appearance at Old Trafford. James trudges off shaking his head sadly.

58 min: The in-form Dan James is down, clutching his calf. Looks like his evening is about to come to an end. “There’s a lot to be said for placing curses on football clubs,” begins Ian Burch, with reference to the earlier entry regarding Benfica banjaxer Bela Guttmann. “As legend has it, Birmingham City had a curse put on them back in 1906 which they’ve been trying to lift ever since. Former manager Ron Saunders supposedly had crucifixes placed on the floodlights while Barry Fry decided to do his bit to set things right by watering the corner flags in a way which possibly only Barry Fry and Aston Villa fans could think of doing. The curse was supposed to last for 100 years, but it doesn’t look like ending anytime soon.”

55 min: United made a triple change at half-time, by the way, Bruno Fernandes finally getting some well-deserved rest. On come Rashford, Williams and Tuanzebe; Fred and Wan-Bissaka are the other two chaps to give way.

GOAL! Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 Young Boys (Siebatcheu 47); agg 3-5. Just like Leicester, Leverkusen now need two goals to progress.

52 min: United should be down to ten. Williams, having just been booked, sticks his studs onto the top of Merino’s boot. It’s clumsy rather than malicious, but nevertheless the young full-back is fortunate not to be walking.

50 min: Meanwhile at Old Trafford, there’s action at both ends, Rashford inches away from steering a free kick into the bottom right, Sagnan planting a header onto the United crossbar.

Gold Blue Peter badge-winner Marcus Rashford comes close to scoring. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
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GOAL! Leicester City 0-1 Slavia Prague (Provod 48); agg 0-1

Slavia come again down the left. A deep cross by Stanciu. Provod is unmarked at the far post. He meets the dropping ball sweetly, sweeping into the bottom right. That’s a fantastic goal, though Leicester’s central defenders had gone AWOL.

Lukas Provod puts Slavia Prague ahead. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images
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The second halves are underway. Almost immediately at the King Power there’s an almighty scramble in the Leicester box, Slavia Prague coming out of the blocks at pace. The hosts clear. But ...

GOAL! JUST BEFORE HALF-TIME! PSV 2-0 Olympiacos (Zahavi 44); agg 4-4. Eran Zahavi scores his second of the evening, and it means his team go in ahead on away goals. So the half-times in the 8pm kick-offs look like this:

  • Leicester City 0-0 Slavia Prague (agg: 0-0)
  • Manchester United 0-0 Real Sociedad (4-0)
  • Bayer Leverkusen 0-0 Young Boys (3-4)
  • Club Brugge 0-0 Dynamo Kiev (1-1)
  • Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 Krasnodar (4-2)
  • AC Milan 1-1 Red Star Belgrade (3-3)
  • PSV Eindhoven 2-0 Olympiakos (4-4)
  • Roma 1-0 Braga (3-0)

HALF TIME: Manchester United 0-0 Real Sociedad (agg 4-0)

La Real have had their chances to reduce the deficit and start dreaming about achieving the seemingly impossible. Most notably captain Mikel Oyarzabal’s absurd penalty. But here we are.

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