UEFA Europa League: City And United Both Knocked Out

The late games in Thursday’s UEFA Europa League, Round of 16 second legs featured a couple of fantastic comebacks and one case of domination. Schalke and Metalist Kharkiv came from behind to get through, while Atletico Madrid were dominant.

Related: Manchester City 3-2 Sporting Lisbon

Things got a little bit frisky after that. Nigel de Jong managed to spark a minor melee after trying to pick up the injured Bruno Pereirinha, and with the visitors attempting to waste as much time as humanly possible City were feeling rightly irked. With 15 minutes to go and the home side needing two goals to advance, things didn’t look too promising, but Aguero notched another after a free kick bounced loose to the Argentine and then the match got very interesting indeed.

City, by this point, had realised that they were in with a shout of making it to the next round and were by now laying siege to Rui Patricio’s goal. Cross after cross was flung into the box, with Sporting defending for their lives. Balotelli managed to pick up a booking for getting angry at Xandao for being kicked in the head. Five minutes of injury time later, goalkeeper Joe Hart came within a foot of winning the thing for City after being thrown forward, with his header flashing just wide of the post. But that chance was the last action of the match - despite the 3-2 win, City are out of the Europa League on away goals.

After a 2-2 draw in Belgium, the tie looked tilted in Hannover’s favour, and the Bundesliga club more or less wrapped things up in the first half. It took just four minutes for Mohammed Abdellaoue to open the scoring from close range, and an own goal by Antonio Kanu made it 4-2 on aggregate in the 21st minute. Things would get worse for Standard Liege when Serge Gekpe chopped down Karim Haggui for a second bookable offence early in the second half, and another own goal by Kanu sealed their fate. The icing on Hannover’s cake came in the last minute, when Sergio Pinto made it 4-0 on the night and 6-2 on aggregate.

They weren’t. The hosts were comfortably the better side throughout, and eventually ran out deserved 2-1 victors on the night and 5-3 on aggregate. The San Mames has witnessed some excellent football this season, and Athletic didn’t disappoint the fans, hurling themselves at United from the opening whistle and forcing their guests into several mistakes. With a 3-2 lead from the first leg, the hosts didn’t have to attack, but they almost couldn’t help themselves. Iker Muniain set the tone after dancing into the box and slapping a shot against David de Gea’s right-hand post, with Oscar de Marcos blazing the rebound well over from close range.

Athletic had several more chances to double their lead, the best of which was probably a mazy run by Andoni Iraola that ripped open the United defence only for the 29-year-old to shoot wide at the vital moment. By this point, however, another goal looked like a simple matter of time - and it wasn’t going to be United scoring it. Athletic were dominant, and with a two-goal aggregate lead the tie was virtually wrapped up.

Substitutes from: Raul Fernandez, Gaizka Toquero, Borja Ekiza, Mikel San Jose, David Lopez, Inigo Perez, Ibai Gomez.

Fans and media alike couldn’t keep Manchester City and Manchester United out of the spotlight in the UEFA Europa League if they tried. As much as the competition should be about the other teams in the competition just as much as it is about England’s top two teams, they have put themselves in situations where they are the story. City are in a tough, but manageable hole, while United are truly underdogs in the second leg of their tie.

2:00 p.m. ET, 6:00 p.m. GMT, 7:00 p.m. CET kickoffs (goals in parenthesis)