Wolves edge out Olympiacos to reach Europa League last eight

An early penalty from Raul Jimenez proved enough to send the English side through to a clash with Sevilla after securing a 2-1 aggregate victory.

Wolves went ahead from the penalty spot after nine minutes.

Stand-in goalkeeper Bobby Allain failed to control a backpass and bundled over Daniel Podence as the former Olympiacos striker went to retrieve the loose ball. Jimenez made no mistake as he coolly dispatched the spot-kick.

Wolves had the ball in the net again after Allain failed to collect a corner but this time the goalkeeper was awarded a foul.

Olympiacos left-back Konstantinos Tsimikas broke into the Wolves area on the overlap and forced a fine one-handed save from Rui Patricio to push the ball around the post.

The Greeks – who had knocked Arsenal out in the last round at the end of February – thought they had equalised after 28 minutes when Mohamed Camara converted after Youssef El Arabi burst down the right.

However, celebrations were cut short after a lengthy VAR review ruled the Moroccan forward had been offside by the narrowest of margins as he leaned forwards to break onto the ball.

As the hour mark passed, Allain pushed over a rising strike from Podence, signed by Wolves in January, which was destined for the top corner.

Olympiacos continued to chase the game entering the closing stages and El Arabi lashed an angled effort into the side-netting, before Allain made another smart save to deny Diogo Jota.

Patricio produced a stunning reaction stop from a header by Olympiacos substitute Ahmed Hassan which proved enough to help the Premier League side through.

Earlier, Bayer Leverkusen set up a last-eight meeting with Inter Milan after they beat Rangers 1-0.

The Germans were already 3-1 up from the first leg at Ibrox in March and there was no way back for the Scottish side in the Rhineland after Moussa Diaby’s goal early in the second half.

Elsewhere, Sevilla had reached the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win over Roma in their one-off last-16 tie at the MSV-Arena.

The Spaniards, who have won the Europa League three times, took control with first-half goals from left-back Sergio Reguilon and Youssef En-Nesyri.

Roma finished the game with 10 men after defender Gianluca Mancini was shown a red card in the closing moments following an aerial challenge on Luuk De Jong.

Basel made sure of their quarter-final place against Shakhtar Donetsk with a 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Fabian Frei’s goal with two minutes left gave the Swiss side a 4-0 aggregate victory.

REUTERS