Fernandes puts Man Utd through to Europa League last eight, Spurs also go through

PARIS – A hat-trick from Bruno Fernandes earned Manchester United a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad in their Europa League last-16 second leg on Thursday, while Tottenham recovered to oust AZ Alkmaar 3-2 on aggregate.

Rangers eliminated Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce 3-2 on penalties while Chelsea comfortably held onto a 1-0 home victory against Copenhagen to book their place in the last-eight of the Europa Conference League.

Fernandes scored two spot-kicks and a late arrowed finish to book Man Utd’s place in the last eight at the expense of 10-man Sociedad 5-2 on aggregate.

“He deserves this and we need to help him with trophies,” Man Utd manager Ruben Amorim told TNT Sports of his captain.

“It was a good performance. The physicality of it was there… Even without the sending off, you had that feeling that the team were going to win this game.”

The visitors led through a penalty in the 10th minute at Old Trafford before Fernandes converted from 12 yards in the 16th and 50th minutes.

Jon Aramburu was shown a red card six minutes after the hour mark and Man Utd made the most of a one-man advantage when Fernandes crashed in a third three minutes from time before Diogo Dalot sealed an emphatic win in injury-time.

Amorim’s side will face Lyon next.

And goals before and after the interval from Wilson Odobert and James Maddison in London secured a 3-1 victory for Spurs against AZ Alkmaar.

Odobert rampaged through some poor AZ defending to give Spurs the aggregate even at 1-1 in the 26th minute of the first leg, finishing 1-0 to the Dutch side.

After the break Maddison arrowed in to make it 2-0 to the hosts after just three minutes, but Peer Koopmeiners responded just before the hour-mark to level up the tie again.

Odobert, who scored his second of the night and Spurs’ third, in the 74th minute, set up a quarter-final clash with Eintracht Frankfurt.

“We’ve moved on, that’s the most important thing,” said Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou.

“We played really well, I thought we were in control of the game, but we were our own worst enemies, in certain moments.”

“It became a bit nervy at the end but we more than deserved to go through.”

Fenerbahce came from behind in the first leg in Istanbul to win 3-1, and then they fought back to win 2-0 at Rangers.

Polish wingman Sebastian Szymanski turned in a couple of cute finishes in the 45th minute and 73rd minute to bring the aggregate score level at three-a-piece and require added time.

It meant three missed spot-kicks for the Turkish side and put Rangers through 3-2 in the shoot-out and into a last-eight meeting with Athletic Bilbao.

“We deserved to win in 90 minutes, we deserved to win in 120 minutes, we were by far the best team,” Mourinho said.

“We did everything to win. The ref and the VAR said we would go to penalties.

“Congratulations to Rangers but I think everything from me, from our supporters, even from Turkey as a country, my team deserved that.”

Chelsea through

A Euro 2024 winner, Nico Williams bagged a crucial brace as Athletic Bilbao, losing 1-0 in the first leg, broke through a one-goal deficit to advance 4-3 on aggregate against Roma, who saw centre half Mats Hummels sent off early.

But it was a better night for Lazio, the other Italian capital club, who advanced 3-2 on aggregate against Viktoria Plzen after a 1-1 draw in the Stadio Olimpico.

Mario Goetze scored a double as Eintracht Frankfurt won 4-1 at home to Ajax as they won resoundingly 6-2 on aggregate over the two legs.

Bodo/Glimt of Norway were beaten 2-1 at Olympiakos in Athens but progressed 4-2 on aggregate.

Lyon thrashed Romania’s FCSB 7-1 on aggregate with four without reply at home.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored the match’s lone goal 10 minutes into the second half at Stamford Bridge to send Chelsea on to the Conference League quarter-finals at the expense of Copenhagen, 3-1 on aggregate.

2023 and 2024 runners-upon- PanathinaikosTaipeiCXD defeated a first-leg deficit with a 3-1 victory in Tuscany and progressed 5-4 on aggregate.

Celje of Slovenia won on penalties at Lugano in the end to a topsy-turvy night in Switzerland which the 10-man hosts won 5-4 but then misfired badly from the spot.