Man United, Basel close in on Europa League quarterfinals

LINZ, Austria (AP) — Odion Ighalo kept up his scoring streak as Manchester United closed in on the Europa League quarterfinals with a 5-0 win over LASK on Thursday in the first leg of their round-of-16 meeting.

Basel beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 away for another commanding lead, with both those games played in near-empty stadiums because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Also, Edin Visca netted a late penalty to give Istanbul Basaksehir a 1-0 home win over FC Copenhagen.

In Linz, Ighalo gave United the lead with a spectacular effort in the 28th minute as he collected a pass from Bruno Fernandes and juggled the ball from foot to foot before unleashing a left-footed volley with his fourth touch that flew in off the underside of the bar.

It was the striker’s fourth goal in three starts after joining United in January.

United dominated throughout but LASK stayed in the game until Daniel James doubled the lead in the 58th. Juan Mata added the third in the 82nd before Mason Greenwood and fellow substitute Andreas Pereira padded the lead in stoppage time to make the return leg all but meaningless.

Only 500 people were allowed inside the stadium because of the virus outbreak, including media personnel and a small pocket of LASK fans.

Frankfurt had hoped to play Basel with fans in the stadium. That was initially supported by city health officials Wednesday, but hours later the decision was reversed, Eintracht citing a change in the extent of the outbreak in areas including Basel.

The visitors took the lead through Samuele Campo in the 27th minute before Kevin Bua and Fabian Frei added goals in the second half.

The two clubs have agreed that Frankfurt will also host the return leg on March 19. That’s because Basel authorities ruled out hosting the game, even in an empty stadium, because they feared fans would gather outside the ground.

In Thursday’s late games, Wolverhampton faced Olympiakos in a game that UEFA ordered to go ahead despite the Greek club’s owner having tested positive for COVID-19.

Also, Rangers hosted Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg played Shakhtar Donetsk.