UEFA Europa League: Three Spanish Clubs, Sporting Through

After a relatively uneventful first half, Adrian put Atlético Madrid ahead on the day with an absolutely stunning goal in the 63rd minute. Hannover’s defending on the goal was calamitous, but Adrian deserves all the credit in the world for his goal. He set it up for himself by beating three men, including the goalkeeper, then beating Emanuel Pogatetz a second time before hitting a 12-yard shot into the back of the net.

Metalist Kharkiv came agonizingly close to reversing their 2-1 loss in Lisbon and advancing to the Europa League semifinals, but fell at what was essentially the last hurdle.

The Ukrainians, who had already pulled off one great escape in this tournament after advancing past Olympiakos in the previous round despite being down 1-0 away from home right at the death, had done just enough against Sporting Lisbon in the first leg, snatching an away goal via penalty at the Estádio José Alvalade after going 2-0 down to keep things close.

Bilbao defended well for the remainder of the game, holding on for a 6-4 aggregate win. They move on to face Sporting Lisbon, the only team remaining in the competition that does not hail from La Liga.

Set-piece defending did AZ in -- twice in three minutes they allowed Rami time and space on short corners -- and they were made to pay the price both times as Valencia raced out to a lead. Although a 2-0 scoreline was hardly safe for the home side -- an Alkmaar goal would have meant extra time -- Valencia always looked like the winners and left back Jordi Alba grabbed another just after the interval to secure the win. Substitute Pablo Hernández came on in the 75th minute, and before long the midfielder made it 4-0 with a lovely curling effort about which Esteban Alvarado could do nothing.

After two minutes of injury time, 4-0 is how it would end, meaning that Valencia advance with a 5-2 aggregate win. Not bad going, eh? Los Che will face Atlético Madrid, who beat Bundesliga side Hannover 96 4-2 on aggregate. Alkmaar, meanwhile, will be left to reflect on a pretty thumping loss, one that really demonstrated the wide gulf in class between the two sides.

Going into stoppage time of the first leg of this tie, Sporting Lisbon appeared to have it all but wrapped up. With the home side having a 2-0 home lead, Metalist Kharkiv were going to have a lot of work to do to overturn the result. Then, Metalist drew a penalty and Cleiton Xavier converted, giving his team a very good chance to advance to the semifinals.

Metalist’s South American contingent is in good form at the moment, led by Argentinian international Jose Ernesto Sosa, who has earned a recall with his play. Sosa is world football’s best roller coaster ride, and he is currently on one of his good years. He will inevitably be one of the most disappointing players in football next season.

Schalke played some solid football against Athletic Bilbao in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League tie, and for around 60 minutes of their match, they looked like the better team. Unfortunately for them, they did not finish the game well and got absolutely torched on the counter-attack. Bilbao hung four goals on Schalke in Gelsenkirchen, and this tie is essentially over.

Of course, everyone on both sides is talking like a Schalke comeback is possible. With players like Raul Gonzalez and Klass-Jan Huntelaar up top, it wouldn’t be terribly shocking, but they need to win by three goals, or by two while scoring for or more goals. This seems highly unlikely.