Liverpool Put Six Past Sparta: Advance To Europa Quarter Finals

Liverpool probably did not need to score past Sparta Prague to advance to the Europa League quarterfinals as they were already up 5-1 on aggregate, but they did anyway. By the time the referee blew his whistle for full-time, the Reds had scored six times in a 6-1 victory, which was more than enough to see them through to the next round.

First Half

Sparta earned a corner inside the first two minutes, but the chance was cleared. The Reds began to dominate from that point. Darwin Núñez got the party started with a goal in the 7th minute, scoring a goal thanks to an assist from Dominik Szoboslai. Off of the restart, Mohamed Salah stole the ball and passed it to Bobby Clark for a goal, his first with the Senior Team.

Clark returned the favour, assisting on Salah's strike as Liverpool were up 3-0 in 10 minutes. The goals kept coming and this time it was Cody Gakpo who scored thanks to a helper from Salah as Liverpool led 4-0.

The game settled into a less frantic pass, but Liverpool still generated plenty of chances to add to their lead in the first half. Salah forced a save before Núñez missed a wide-open net later in the half. Clark was denied a double thanks to a nice Sparta save. Núñez tried a bicycle kick before Sparta got on the board right before the half when Veljko Birmancevic outmuscled Wataru Endo for a goal to make the halftime tally 4-1.

Second Half

Liverpool got that goal back early in the second half. Szoboszlai took a shot from a tough angle and the ball deflected off of a defender and in the back of the net for a 5-1 lead in the 48th minute.

Harvey Elliott earned a corner in the 54th minute. The cross was blocked back out to him and he put the ball in the back of the net from a long way out. Upon further review, the goal was given to Gakpo thanks to a deflection on the way through to the back of the net.

Gakpo had a pair of chances to earn a hat trick but he missed a shot in the 69th minute and had one saved in the 77th. For the rest of the match, the only question was whether Gakpo would garner his hat trick, but it was not to be. He put the ball in the back of the net in the 90th minute and forced a save during the small amount of stoppage time as Liverpool had to settle for the 6-1 win.

An Early Blitz

Liverpool took all of the drama out of the match early, scoring four times inside 15 minutes. That outburst means that the Reds are the second-fastest to four goals in a major UEFA competition with Chelsea being the quickest during the 1971-72 season

The King Of The Hill

With his first-half goal, Mohamed Salah becomes the first Liverpool player to score at least 20 goals across all competitions for seven consecutive seasons. Darwin Núñez has now scored six goals over his last six games played and Liverpool have scored 117 times in 45 matches this season (2.6 goals per match)

The Not So Rocky Road To Dublin

The Europa League Finals are going to be held in Dublin this season and Jürgen Klopp has told reporters “It's our competition to lose.” Liverpool will find out who they play in the quarterfinals on Friday, March 15th when the draw is held, The matches will take place on April 11th and 18th respectively,

LFC Globe Verdict

The outcome of today's match was never in doubt as Liverpool were going to advance barring a disastrous collapse, but it was fun to see Liverpool bang in six goals. Honesty, they could have had more and I am slightly disappointed that Gakpo did not score a hat trick. It was nice to see the Reds working to get him that third goal. There are not many complaints after this one.

Man Of The Match

Whenever a side wins 6-1 it's hard to choose a top player. Even though Gakpo scored two goals, I'm going to give it to Mohamed Salah. He scored, had an assist and set up several other scoring chances that were not converted. He also deserves credit for putting in a full 90 minutes after coming off of an injury.

What's Next

Liverpool will host rival Manchester United in the 5th Round of the FA Cup. The game is set for Sunday, March 17th at 16:30 GMT

Goals

Liverpool

1. Darwin  Núñez 7'
2. Bobby Clark 8'
3. Mohamed Salah 10'
4. Cody Gakpo 14'
5. Dominik Szoboszlai 48'
6. Cody Gakpo 55'

Sparta

1.Veljko Birmancevic 42'

Substitutes

Liverpool 

1. Harvey Elliott for Darwin Núñez HT'
2. James McConnell for Wataru Endo HT'
3. Kostas Tsimikas for Joe Gomez HT'
4. Virgil van Dijk for Jarell Quansah 66'
5. Mateusz Musialowski for Bobby Clark 73'

Sparta

1. Filip Panik for Matej Rynes HT'
2. Lukas Sadilek for Qazim Laci 58'
3. Lukas Haraslin for Jan Kuchta 58'
4. Indrit Tuci for Veljko Virmancevic 66'
5. Patrik Vydra for Marcus Slobakken 75'