PRAGUE-- AC Milan eased into the Europa League quarter-finals with a 3-1 victory at 10-man Slavia Prague on Thursday to secure a 7-3 aggregate win as West Ham United crushed German side Freiburg in a record triumph. Slavia's hopes of swiftly closing the gap from the 4-2 loss in the first leg were shattered after 20 minutes when captain Tomas Holes received a red card for a stamp on Milan's Davide Calabria. Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Rafael Leao scored in the first half to put seven-times European champions Milan in complete control of the tie. "Today, we controlled the game more, scored three goals, and the course of the match was quite clear," Milan manager Stefano Pioli said. The second half was uneventful until six minutes from time when Matej Jurasek claimed a consolation goal for Slavia. Milan faced a concern as keeper Mike Maignan was forced off the pitch early due to a knee injury. "He felt a pain in his knee, he was already better now. It doesn't seem like anything too worrying, let's see how she reacts tomorrow," Pioli said. West Ham overwhelmed Freiburg 5-0 thanks to goals from Lucas Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen, Aaron Cresswell and a brace from Mohammed Kudus to claim their biggest win in a major European competition and send them into the last eight 5-1 on aggregate. David Moyes, in his 250th match as West Ham manager, commended his team. "We looked like scoring tonight and looked the bigger threat. Obviously, we've got two or three exceptional individual players who helped us get goals. It was a brilliant performance for us to win by five," Moyes told UEFA.com. Benfica clinched their quarter-final spot with a 1-0 victory over Scottish side Rangers courtesy of Rafa Silva's strike in the 66th minute which secured a 3-2 aggregate win. Liverpool hammered Sparta Prague 6-1 on Thursday to storm into the Europa League quarter-finals 11-2 on aggregate while Bayer Leverkusen staged a dramatic turnaround to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Qarabag. Liverpool were 4-0 up within 14 minutes thanks to goals by Darwin Nunez, Bobby Clark, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo. Serbian striker Veljko Birmancevic pulled one back for the visitors before the break, but Liverpool continued to dominate. "It was on us to decide how good a game it would be and obviously we enjoyed playing football, some fantastic goals as well early on. From that point on it becomes a difficult game, like how do you keep going?," Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp told TNT Sports. Leverkusen secured a 3-2 home victory over Azerbaijani team Qarabag, with Patrik Schick's stoppage-time brace ensuring a 5-4 aggregate win and extending Leverkusen's unbeaten run to 37 games. Brighton & Hove Albion's effort to bridge a four-goal deficit against AS Roma proved futile as they could only manage a 1-0 home victory, Danny Welbeck's curler a consolation in the Italain side's 4-1 aggregate win. "As I said before, nobody will be happy to play against Roma either in this competition. Looking at the options, whoever we get will be exciting," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia. Atalanta secured a hard-fought 2-1 home victory over Portuguese side Sporting, with Ademola Lookman and Gianluca Scamacca turning the match around for the hosts to seal a 3-2 aggregate win for the Italian team. Despite Villarreal's 3-1 home victory over Olympique de Marseille, featuring goals from Etienne Capoue, Alexander Sorloth and Yerson Mosquera, the French side secured a 5-3 aggregate win thanks to a stoppage-time strike from Jonathan Clauss. The draws for the Europa League quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final will take place at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday.
DORTMUND, Germany- - Jadon Sancho and Marco Reus were on target as Borussia Dortmund secured a nervous 2-0 win over PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday and a Champions League last-eight place for the first time in three years with a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Spencer Strider shines, Braves blank Twins Ozzie Albies homered, Spencer Strider struck out nine batters over five innings and the host Atlanta Braves three-hit the Minnesota Twins 3-0 in spring training action Monday in North Port, Fla. Strider (3-0) punched out nearly half the 19 batters he faced and yielded just two hits, one walk and one hit batter. The Braves' ace struck out the side in the second inning. Albies' shot to right as the second batter of the bottom of the first provided all the run support necessary. Two more runs scored on Luis Liberato's single to center in the eighth. Twins starter Chris Paddack (0-2) gave up one run on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts in four innings. Brooks Lee had a double. Yankees 5, Orioles 3 Austin Wells' three-run double capped a four-run first inning as host New York took down Baltimore in Tampa, Fla. Yankees minor league prospect Will Warren (2-0) got the start and allowed one run on three hits and three walks, striking out two in three innings. Wells' double was the Yankees' only extra-base hit of the game, while Alex Verdugo and Caleb Durbin each finished with two hits. Orioles starter Julio Teheran (0-1) was tagged for four runs on three hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings. Donta' Williams and Connor Norby drove in runs in the ninth but Baltimore failed to make up a four-run deficit. Yankees 2, Phillies 1 Oscar Gonzalez hit a two-run home run and New York's split squad beat host Philadelphia in Clearwater, Fla. Gonzalez, whom the Yankees claimed off waivers from Cleveland this offseason, scored Josh VanMeter with his shot to left center in the top of the eighth. Reliever Luis Gil (2-0) struck out eight batters over 3 2/3 scoreless innings and yielded one hit and one walk. David Dahl brought in the Phillies' only run on a ninth-inning sacrifice fly. Luis Ortiz (0-2) gave up Gonzalez's homer. Tigers 5, Astros 3 Eddys Leonard and Trei Cruz hit consecutive two-run singles in the eighth inning to guide visiting Detroit past Houston in Palm Beach, Fla. Tigers pitcher Andrew Vasquez (2-0) struck out two in a perfect inning of relief. Justyn-Henry Malloy piled up three of Detroit's 10 hits and scored two runs. Jose Altuve had a pair of RBI singles for the Astros. Reliever Misael Tamarez (1-2) blew the save with four earned runs on four hits and two walks over two innings. Red Sox 1, Pirates 0 Nick Sogard's groundout in the seventh inning plated the only run as host Boston squeaked by Pittsburgh in Fort Myers, Fla. Both teams finished with just five hits. Cam Booser (1-0) pitched a scoreless, hitless seventh after starter Cooper Criswell yielded two hits over 3 2/3 innings with four strikeouts. Bailey Falter started for the Pirates and went 3 2/3 frames with one hit, one walk and four strikeouts. Ryder Ryan (0-2) gave up the lone run. Blue Jays 9, Rays 2 Ernie Clement hit a two-run home run and an RBI single as visiting Toronto trounced Tampa Bay in Port Charlotte, Fla. The Blue Jays, who finished with 11 hits, rang up a 6-0 lead through 2 1/2 innings. Danny Jansen and Davis Schneider added home runs later on. Starter Mitch White (1-0) gave up two runs on five hits and a walk, fanning two over three innings. Harold Ramirez's double in the bottom of the third provided the Rays their only two runs. Starter Zach Eflin (0-2) gave up eight runs (four earned) on eight hits in four innings and saw his spring ERA go up to 12.71. Nationals 11, Cardinals 4 Juan Yepez tallied four RBIs as Washington scored 10 unanswered runs to race past host St. Louis in Jupiter, Fla. Yepez hit two-run singles during a four-run seventh and a five-run eighth for the Nationals. Jesse Winker, Drew Millas and Alex Call each drove in two runs. Thaddeus Ward (1-0) pitched a perfect sixth inning. Paul Goldschmidt's run-scoring double gave the Cardinals a 4-1 lead in the fourth before JoJo Romero (0-3) was dinged for four runs on five hits in one inning of work.
BARCELONA, Spain-- Barcelona reached the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in four years after a 3-1 win over Napoli in their last-16 second leg gave them a 4-2 aggregate victory on Tuesday. In a highly entertaining game, Barca set the early pace to take a 2-0 lead but Napoli pulled a goal back to set up an exciting second half before Robert Lewandowski scored a killer third goal for the hosts. Fermin Lopez opened the scoring for the home side after 15 minutes and two minutes later Joao Cancelo doubled their lead. Barcelona looked well on the way to a decisive win before Napoli got on the scoresheet through Amir Rrahmani after 30 minutes. Both sides had chances after the break but with seven minutes left Barca found a much-needed third goal when Lewandowski slotted home a clever pass from Sergi Roberto.
CALIFORNIA --Damian Lillard scored 35 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo added 34 to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 124-117 win against the Clippers in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon.
