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Europa League, round of 16, first leg

Atlético Madrid are well set to go through to the quarter finals of the Europa League after a 3-0 victory over Lokomotiv Moscow on Thursday evening. Saúl Ñíguez opened the scoring midway through the first half with an impressive shot from outside of the area, and just a couple of minutes after the restart Diego Costa added the second after Guilherme could only push out a shot from Griezmann. Local keeper Axel Werner, finally making his first team debut due to an injury to Oblak, hardly had a save to make, and with the game coming to an end Koke turned in Juanfran’s cross to wrap things up. Atlético may well be Spain’s only representative in the last eight though after Athletic Bilbao lost 3-1 at Olympique Marseille later in the evening. The Basque side were already two down with less than a quarter of an hour gone, Ocampo beating Herrerín in the first minute, and Payet volleying in the second soon afterwards. Aduríz got one back from the penalty spot after the a shot from the striker hit Rami on the arm on the stroke of half time, but with just under an hour gone Ocampo connected with Payet’s cross to make it three, and only a couple of late saves from Herrerín prevented the French team from winning by a bigger margin. (08.03.18)