Shakhtar, Copenhagen advance as Europa League returns

Shakhtar Donetsk and Copenhagen reached the Europa League quarterfinals Wednesday as continental soccer returned amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Shakhtar, the 2009 UEFA Cup winner, won 3-0 in the second leg against Wolfsburg to complete a 5-1 victory on aggregate, five months after the first leg was played.

Copenhagen reached the quarterfinals of a European competition for the first time after overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg against Istanbul Basaksehir to win 3-1 on aggregate.

Shakhtar and Copenhagen are the first teams to book their places in the quarterfinals, which are being played in a new tournament format used by UEFA during the pandemic. All games from the quarterfinals onward are being played in Germany over a single leg.

Manchester United plays LASK Linz later Wednesday with a 5-0 lead from the first leg. Inter Milan plays Getafe in a one-off game in Germany because they did not complete a first leg before the European season was suspended.

Games began with a minute's silence designated by UEFA to honor victims of the coronavirus pandemic. There was no coordinated gesture aimed at racial injustice, though team captains wore armbands reading “No To Racism.”

United players took a knee before their game, as all teams have done in the English Premier League since it restarted in June, and were joined by their Austrian opponents from LASK. At the Inter-Getafe game, all players stood in silence around the center circle after an announcement about the coronavirus.

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