English football
discovered a teen sensation as 18-year-old Marcus Rashford scored twice on
debut to help Manchester United beat Danish club FC Midtjylland 5-1 and join
Liverpool, Tottenham and four Spanish sides in the last 16 of the Europa
League.
Villarreal upset
Italian high-flyer Napoli; Valencia cruised through 10-0 on aggregate; Sevilla
progressed despite losing 1-0 away to Norwegian side Molde, and Athletic Bilbao
edged out Marseille 2-1 on aggregate.
German side
Borussia Dortmund also got through after comfortably eliminating Porto.
The pressure has
been mounting on United coach Louis van Gaal in recent weeks and reached
near-breaking point when United lost the first leg 2-1 last week.
Elimination may
have ended van Gaal's fractious reign and the signs were starting to look
ominous with Wayne Rooney sidelined through injury and fellow forward Anthony
Martial was injured in the warm-up - giving the Manchester-born Rashford an
unexpected opportunity.
Nearly 12 years
ago, Rooney was 18 when he started his own United career in emphatic style -
netting a clinical hat-trick as United swept aside Fenerbahce in the Champions
League - and this time Rashford thrilled Old Trafford with two second-half
strikes.
That followed
another sluggish United start, as Pione Sisto put the visitors ahead with a
fine individual goal, having also scored in the first leg.
United equalised
courtesy of an own goal from centre half Nikolay Bodurov four minutes later but
then missed a penalty as Juan Mata's spot kick was saved by goalkeeper Mikkel
Andersen.
After Rashford's
brace took the pressure off, midfielder Ander Herrera and forward Memphis Depay
added late goals.
"He made a
great performance," said van Gaal, who insisted he had no qualms in
starting Rashford despite the size of the game and the youngster's
inexperience.
Meanwhile,
midfielders Ryan Mason and Erik Lamela grabbed a goal each as Tottenham beat
Italian side Fiorentina 3-0 to go through 4-1 on aggregate.
In Naples, Marek
Hamsik levelled the tie against Villarreal with a fine volley from just outside
the penalty area, but midfield counterpart Tomas Pina levelled to send the
visitors through 2-1 overall.
Earlier, an early
penalty from midfielder James Milner was enough for five-time European champion
Liverpool as it scraped past German side Augsburg 1-0; joining Shakhtar
Donetsk, Fenerbahce, Basel, Anderlecht, Lazio, Bayer Leverkusen and Sparta
Prague in the next round.
"My goal
turned out to be quite an important one," Milner said.
"Augsburg
never gave up, they made things very hard for us towards the end, but the key
thing is that we have qualified."
Valencia trounced
Rapid Vienna 4-0 away after routing the Austrian side 6-0 in Spain, while
veteran striker Miroslav Klose rounded off a good night for Lazio as it beat
Turkish side Galatasaray 3-1 to advance 4-2 on aggregate.
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