On Thursday evening, the UEFA Europa League round of 16 battles began. London's "Tottenham" experienced failure as they failed to break through the defense of "Gent" in the away match. In the ranks of the Belgian team, Jeremy Perbet scored the only goal after almost an hour, so they will travel to the return leg in the English capital with a minimal advantage. A positive result was achieved by the club represented by Žydrūnas Karčemarskas, "Osmanlispor". The Lithuanian goalkeeper kept a clean sheet, and the final result of the tough match against "Olympiacos" was a draw. Another step towards the next stage was taken by the players of "Lyon", crushing Alkmaar AZ in an away match. In the first half, the away team took the lead with precise strikes from Lucas Tousart and Alexandre Lacazette, with Lacazette converting another goal after the break. The opponents had hopes revived with a penalty kick, but "Lyon" defender Jordan Ferri sealed the final result. In the clash between German and Italian clubs, Fiorentina defeated Monchengladbach's "Borussia" with the only goal scored by Federico Bernardeschi. In one of the evening matches, "Manchester United" achieved a great result at home, defeating "Saint-Etienne" with a hat-trick from Zlatan Ibrahimović. The Spanish representative Bilbao "Athletic" also won in front of their own fans after a tough battle against APOEL from Nicosia, Cyprus. The hosts had to equalize the result after Georgios Efrem's goal, but later, Artitzas Aduriz and Inaki Williams gave them the lead. However, at the end of the match, an important goal was scored by Giannis Giannotas for the visitors. Another "La Liga" team, "Villarreal," suffered a crushing defeat at home against "Roma." The Italian team initially took the lead through Emerson, and later, Edin Džeko scored a hat-trick. Results: "Krasnodar" 1 - 0 "Fenerbahce" AZ 1 - 4 "Lyon" "Astra" 2 - 2 "Genk" "Gladbach" 0 - 1 "Fiorentina" "Celta Vigo" 0 - 1 "Shakhtar" "Rostov" 4 - 0 "Sparta" "Gent" 1 - 0 "Tottenham" "Ludogorets" 1 - 2 "Kobenhavn" "Olympiacos" 0 - 0 "Osmanlispor" "Anderlecht" 2 - 0 "Zenit" "Athletic" 3 - 2 APOEL "Hapoel Beer Sheva" 1 - 3 "Beşiktaş" "Legia" 0 - 0 "Ajax" "Manchester United" 3 - 0 "Saint-Etienne" PAOK 0 - 3 "Schalke" "Villarreal" 0 - 4 "Roma"
