Five-star Liverpool and Roma thrash Brighton
Liverpool surged towards the Europa League quarter-finals with a 5-1 win at Sparta Prague on Thursday, as Roma thrashed Brighton 4-0 in the Italian capital. 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. 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. 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. But Luis Diaz's deflected effort quickly restored Liverpool's three-goal cushion. Dominik Szoboszlai 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. Leverkusen are well on course to win their first-ever Bundesliga title but have work to do to reach the Europa League quarter-finals after a 2-2 draw with Qarabag. Substitutes Florian Wirtz and Patrik Schick scored in the final 20 minutes to preserve Leverkusen's unbeaten record in 35 games in all competitions this season. Milan were given a helping hand at the San Siro by an early red card for Slavia defender Malick Diouf. Olivier Giroud, Tijjani Reijnders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic were on target for the Italian giants in a 4-2 win. 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. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice in Marseille's 4-0 humiliation of 10-man Villarreal. (AFP)