Barca advances in Europa League, Rangers knock out Dortmund

Barcelona found its scoring touch again to reach the round of 16 of the Europa League with a 4-2 win over Napoli on Thursday, while Rangers knocked out Borussia Dortmund in Glasgow. Frenkie de Jong scored with a long-range curler and newly signed striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted again for Barcelona, which had been held 1-1 at home in the first leg. The Spanish giant has struggled badly in its first season since the departure of Lionel Messi and was demoted to the Europa League after failing to advance to the Champions League knockout stages for the firs time since 2004.

Dortmund is also a Champions League regular but couldn’t come back from a 4-2 home loss in the first leg as a 2-2 draw at Rangers saw the German team eliminated in one of eight playoffs between third-place finishers in the Champions League groups and Europa League group runners-up. On a night when Europe was rocked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi scored a couple of goals to lead Atalanta into the round of 16. Malinovskyi netted twice in a two-minute span in the second half for a 3-0 win over Olympiakos as Atalanta advanced 5-1 on aggregate.

After scoring, Malinovskyi lifted his Atalanta jersey to show a message reading “No war in Ukraine” on his undershirt. Real Betis also advanced after a 0-0 draw with Zenit St. Petersburg that was enough for a 3-2 aggregate victory after the Russian team had a late goal overturned by VAR.