By Eden Roitfarb and Yossi Medina
The Europa Conference League has provided us with a great night of entertainment, with drama and some sensational moments.
Here are the best moments from the second leg of the round of 16.
Sensation in Spain
The favourites are out!
In arguably the most surprising result of the day, Anderlecht headed to Villareal, shocking the hosts with a 1-0 victory.
A goal from Islam Slimani saw the visitors go through 2-1 on aggregate.
It has been a rollercoaster campaign for Villareal, who won four games under Unai Emery, and failed to win any of the next four under Quique Setien.
Even their return to the Estadio de la Ceramica wasn't any help, as the Spanish side disappointed once again.
Anderlecht join Gent in the quarter finals, meaning a quarter of the teams in the round will be Belgian.
An early Roman exit
There will be no repeat for the city of Rome this year, as Lazio failed in their quest to mimic their city rivals' feat of winning the Conference League.
The Italians lost 4-2 on aggregate to AZ Alkmaar.
Coming into the second leg already 2-1 down, it was always going to be a tough task, despite being considered the stronger side going into this tie.
Felipe Anderson opened the scoring for the visitors in the 21st minute, but Jesper Karlsson equalized immediately with a swerving shot from distance.
Vangelis Pavlidis was on hand to finish off the Italians just after the hour mark.
Alkmaar are a team no one will want to meet in the quarters.
Fiorentina on the road
After a narrow 1-0 win in the first leg, Fiorentina were hoping to qualify for the next stage.
Sivasspor hosted the second leg and provided a warm welcome for their Italian guests.
Erdoğan Yeşilyurt scored first for Sivasspor, but it didn’t help his side.
Arthur Cabral, Nikola Milenković, Gaetano Castrovilli, and an own goal by Dimitrios Goutas made it a 4-1 win for Fiorentina.
It’s the ninth time that Fiorentina will play in the quarter-finals of a European competition, and their first since 2015, when they did it in the Europa League.
More momentum for Nice
A team peaking at the exact right moment this season is French side Nice, who had a pretty tough first half but now seem to be on a roll in all competitions.
Since taking over as manager, Didier Digard is undefeated in 12 matches, and today completed the task vs Sheriff Tiraspol with a 3-1 win in the Allianz Riviera - 4-1 on aggregate.
Nice are the only French team left in a European competition, and will hope to bring back some local pride.
The Moldovans are out for this year, but can be very happy with their European campaign as a whole.
The Hammers hammer AEK
The West Ham v AEK Larnaca battle was pretty much settled last week in Cyprus, and today’s game was more of a stress-free environment for all involved.
The Irons from east London easily came out victorious 4-0 on the night, and 6-0 on aggregate to go through.
18-year-old Divin Mubama scored his first goal for the club, as Jarrod Bowen netted a double and Gianluca Scamacca added one of his own.
David Moyes can still dream of winning his first major trophy this year.
A tragic draw for Slovan Bratislava
Slovan Bratislava had an opportunity to do something special in front of their home fans, as they hosted Basel after a 2-2 draw in the first leg.
When both teams played each other in Slovakia during the group stage, Slovan Bratislava had a two-goal lead before capitulating.
Last night, they again led by two goals, when Malik Abubakari and Juraj Kucka scored.
Riccardo Calafiori scored for Basel, and in the 93rd minute, Zeki Amdouni scored their second.
The game went to penalties, and in the shootout Slovan Bratislava failed.
Basel won 4-1 and qualified for the quarter-finals.
Lech Poznan is unstoppable
The Polish champions had another Europa Conference League night to remember.
They defeated Djurgarens 2-0 in the first leg, and all they had to do was to hold on to their lead.
It took 77 minutes until Filip Marchwiński scored the first for Lech Poznan before, in added time, Nika Kvekveskiri and Michał Skóraś rounded out a 3-0 win.
No Polish team has reached the quarters of any European competition since Legia Warsaw made it to this stage in the 1996 Champions League.
It’s looking like a great opportunity for them in the Europa Conference League this season.
Gift Orban leads Gent
In the early match of the round, Gent traveled to Istanbul to play Basaksehir.
After a 1-1 draw in the first leg, no one could imagine such an impressive match.
Gift Orban scored the equaliser for Gent last week and, since then, he has scored four goals in a single league match.
In this match he put on another outstanding performance, scoring a hat-trick in under four minutes.
Hugo Cuypers scored another goal for Gent, and a late one from Adnan Januzaj didn’t make any difference to the outcome of the match.
Gent has only played in a European quarter-final once before this, and that was back in 1992.
Edited by Alex Smith
