The Sky Sports football writers analyse Thursday’s Europa League and Conference League action as all four British clubs progress to quarter-final ties.

Big night for Amorim as Man Utd’s season is alive

Ruben Amorim called it the complete week, one in which Manchester United offered a glimpse of the future with their stadium plans and a little bit of hope for the present as the players showed on the pitch that a European trophy is a possibility this season.

The United head coach saw his team produce one of their best performances of the season in beating Real Sociedad 4-1 at Old Trafford, with big performances from Bruno Fernandes and Patrick Dorgu, while Joshua Zirkzee and Casemiro also impressed.

Dorgu’s display, marauding forward from wing-back, suggested that the first step towards reshaping this squad is a positive one, while Amorim also stressed that the improvement in others reflects his own greater understanding of how to deploy them.

“I am improving the way I should use a player like Casemiro,” he explained. “I am not trying to put Casemiro pressing really high. I think you can feel that our team is more connected, even defending. That can help a lot Casemiro because he is so smart.”

He added: “It is everything together. The team is better, the players can play better, I understand better the characteristics of the players. So everything combined can help us.” Optimism, then, that this most difficult of seasons could have a trophy at its end.

The importance of that can hardly be overstated and not just because Champions League football would transform the finances. Continuing on the path to Bilbao means there is momentum to these coming weeks and months. United’s season is alive.
Adam Bate

The blend of youth and experience wins it for Spurs

For the first time since October, Ange Postecoglou could start his ‘leadership group’. The quartet of Cristian Romero, James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario and Heung-Min Son all started as part of a strong Spurs line-up. It was with these four that Spurs would catalyse their comeback.

Son was involved in the first when his high press on Wouter Goes forced an error at the back as a front-foot Spurs took the lead. Maddison, scorer of the second, would also drive his team up the pitch for the third, beginning an impressive team goal finished off by Wilson Odobert for his second goal of the night.

Odobert, the 20-year-old summer signing from Burnley, opened his Spurs account on a night where Lucas Bergvall, 18, put right the wrongs of his first-leg own-goal with a controlled presence deep in midfield, was withdrawn late in the second half to a standing ovation, with those present appreciative of his industry and effort to give Spurs’ season a lifeline.

Postecoglou had what he would feel is very close to his strongest side and it paid off. The mix of youth and experience has given Spurs fans something, at the very least, to look forward to.
William Bitibiri

Europa League progression keeps Rangers’ season alive

Trailing by 16 points in the title race with no hope of domestic silverware this season, but Europa League Thursdays remain Rangers’ happy place.

Jack Butland proved to be their hero as they beat Fenerbahce on penalties to set up a quarter-final tie with Athletic Bilbao.

They were brilliant in Istanbul but again struggled in front of the Ibrox crowd as they fell to their fourth straight home defeat for the first time in the club’s history.

It’s an unwanted record they do not want, but the fans probably aren’t too concerned about this one given the outcome and their progression to the last eight.

Barry Ferguson wanted the players to have Ibrox rocking and a giant banner adorned by the badges of the sides already conquered this season and the words ‘In the Eye of a Rangers Storm’.

The crowd stuck with them and they got their reward. Why Rangers can do in Europe what they can’t domestically remains a mystery.
Alison Conroy

Chelsea can’t keep relying on second-half improvements

Chelsea have made light work of their Conference League campaign but were given a timely reminder against Copenhagen that their standards can’t drop.

The worrying first-half performance that saw them fail to have a shot would have been punished by a better side. It will do little to ease the concerns of their supporters over Enzo Maresca’s style amid their patchy form, propped up by recent wins over Leicester and Southampton.

Maresca has shrewdly used his squad to navigate this competition and they deserved to go through over the two legs in this tie. Cup football is about winning and they have won.

However, they had to call upon Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella at half-time of the second leg to be sure they would reach the quarter-finals.

Maresca insists it was all part of the plan, to make the required tactical changes to see them through. It is a risky approach that could find them with too much to do in future.
David Richardson