An early penalty by Alexis Mac Allister and a Darwin Núñez brace helped Liverpool to thrash Sparta Prague 5-1 within the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday.
Liverpool, who certified for the knockout rounds as group winners, dominated the sport and had been up 3-0 on the break to edge nearer to the quarterfinals.
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After Mac Allister was taken down contained in the field, the Argentine gave Liverpool the lead from the spot within the sixth minute. He despatched Sparta keeper Peter Jensen the mistaken means as he fired into the underside nook.
Nunez doubled the benefit from a distance within the twenty fifth, squeezing in his shot slightly below the bar to notch up the 1,000th purpose throughout Juergen Klopp’s tenure.
The Uruguay ahead then made it 3-0 in first-half stoppage time after he acquired a lofted go from Mac Allister to fit residence from the sting of the field.
Liverpool substitute Conor Bradley scored an personal purpose simply after the break however the guests restored their three-goal lead within the 53rd minute via Luis Díaz.
Substitute Mohamed Salah thought he had prolonged Liverpool’s result in 5-1 however his purpose was dominated out by VAR for offside.
Nonetheless, Dominik Szoboszlai added a fifth in harm time.
Within the different early kickoff, AS Roma secured a 4-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion. Paulo Dybala opened the scoring within the twelfth minute and Romelu Lukaku doubled their lead earlier than the break following a one-on-one with goalkeeper Jason Steele.
Defender Gianluca Mancini made it 3-0 for the hosts within the sixty fourth minute earlier than midfielder Bryan Cristante accomplished the rout 4 minutes later with a header.
Runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen got here from two targets all the way down to rescue a 2-2 draw at Azerbaijan’s Qarabag with targets from Florian Wirtz and Patrik Schick.
Sporting Lisbon and Atalanta performed out a 1-1 draw on Wednesday with ahead Gianluca Scamacca scoring earlier than halftime to cancel out Paulinho’s opener for the Portuguese hosts.
The match passed off at some point forward of the Europa League’s Thursday schedule as UEFA security guidelines don’t allow groups from the identical metropolis to host video games on the identical day. Benfica tackle Rangers in Lisbon in a later kickoff.
The second legs will probably be performed on March 14.