Europa League, the cadre of qualifiers: Milan, Roma and Atalanta tremble

Whichever way it goes, the quarters will feature challenges of the highest order.

Europa League with three Italians in the quarterfinals, but all eight qualifiers are of a decidedly high level or at least of the highest name. And on the evening that saw Milan, Roma and Atalanta eliminate Slavia Prague, Brighton and Sporting Lisbon, respectively, even the most expected rivals did their homework. Smoother, theoretically, was Fiorentina’s path in the Conference League.

Perhaps the most emblazoned name to have fallen on Thursday in the Europa League è that of Rangers, defeated in Glasgow by Benfica (1-0 for the Lusitanians). By contrast, Marseille (beaten 3-1 at Villarreal’s field) and Bayer Leverkusen (in degrees to beat Qarabag 3-2 only in the last seconds of recovery) trembled, but they passed the round. Ahead without any headaches are Liverpool (6-1 over Slavia Prague) and West Ham (5-0 domestic over Freiburg).

Fiorentina’s next, possible challenges, on the other hand, appear less hostile. Among the Conference League bigwigs, in fact, stand out Aston Villa (which rifled a resounding 4-0 win over Ajax) and Lille, which only needed a 1-1 home draw with Sturm Graz. Other teams to advance to the quarterfinals are Greek Paok and Olympiacos (5-1 over Dinamo Zagreb and 6-1, moreover in extra time, at Maccabi Tel Aviv), Fenerbahce (without consequence the 1-0 home knockout against Saint-Gilloise), Bruges (3-0 over Molde) and Viktoria Plzen (beat Servette on penalties).