Liverpool surged towards the Europa League quarter-finals with a 5-1 win at Sparta Prague, while AS Roma thrashed Brighton 4-0 in the Italian capital on Thursday night.
Liverpool remain on course to send Jurgen Klopp off with a quadruple of trophies as the Reds were not distracted by Sunday’s mammoth Premier League showdown against Manchester City.
Klopp named a strong side and got what he wanted by killing off the tie in the first leg, even if there was a price to pay in further injury problems as centre-back Ibrahima Konate limped off.
Alexis Mac Allister got the visitors off to the perfect start in the Czech capital as he won and converted a penalty after just seven minutes.
Sparta Prague had dumped out Galatasaray in the previous round and created plenty of chances against a makeshift Liverpool defence.
But the difference in quality between the sides showed in the final third.
Darwin Nunez’s dipping shot from long-range outfoxed Peter Jensen to make it 2-0, before the Uruguayan smashed home Mac Allister’s through ball in first-half stoppage time.
Conor Bradley replaced Joe Gomez at half-time and his first act was to fire into the top corner of his own goal one minute into the second half.
Man City, Real Madrid advance to Champions League quarter-finals
But Luis Diaz’s deflected effort quickly restored Liverpool’s three-goal cushion.
Mohamed Salah made his comeback from a hamstring injury as a substitute and thought he had marked his return with a goal, but a VAR review disallowed his strike for offside.
Instead, it was another substitute Dominik Szoboszlai who fired in the fifth in stoppage time.
Brighton’s first foray into European football looks over at the last-16 stage after the Seagulls were thrashed by in-form Roma.
The Italian giants have only lost once in 10 games since legendary former player Daniele De Rossi replaced the sacked Jose Mourinho in January.
In the other games, AC Milan defeated 10-man Slavia Prague 4-2, while Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen had to come from 2-0 down to preserve their unbeaten season in a 2-2 draw against Qarabag.
Leverkusen are well on course to win their first-ever Bundesliga title but have work to do to reach the Europa League quarter-finals.
Benfica twice came from behind but Rangers have the upper hand going into the second leg at Ibrox after a 2-2 draw in Lisbon.
However, West Ham have work to do after losing 1-0 to Freiburg.
The Hammers had beaten the Germans twice in the group stages but Michael Gregoritsch scored the only goal nine minutes from time to give Freiburg a slender first leg lead.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also scored twice in Marseille’s 4-0 humiliation of 10-man Villarreal.
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