That was a good Thursday night, wasn't it? In a pair of cracking UEFA Europa League semifinals, Manchester United beat Roma 6-2, while Villarreal beat Arsenal 2-1. Here are the best stats from the night's action.
1
This is Villarreal's first win in 5 meetings with Arsenal in UEFA competitions (2L, 2D before this).
4
Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani had 4 goal involvements each today (2 goals, 2 assists each). That is tied for the most in a UEFA Semifinal or later since 2010-11, with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, who did it in the 2018 UCL Semifinals vs. .... Roma.
In fact, the last player to have more goal involvements in a UEFA KO Stage match was Lionel Messi (5 goals vs. Bayer Leverkusen in 2012, Round of 16)
4
Four of the last six penalties Manchester United have conceded at Old Trafford have been given away by Paul Pogba. He has been at fault for three of the last four they've conceded at any venue.
6
Manchester United are the first team to score 6 goals in a major European semifinal since Real Madrid beat Zurich 6-0 in the European Cup in 1964, 57 years ago.
6
This is the first time since 2007 that Manchester United have scored 6 goals in European competitions (when they beat Roma 7-1 at Old Trafford). That day also marked the last time Manchester United had 2+ players score 2+ goals in a UEFA game (current member of coaching staff Michael Carrick and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo each had 2).
9
Edin Dzeko scored his 9th career goal vs. Manchester United in all competitions, tying Plzen for the most of his career vs. any opponent (2 for Wolfsburg, 2 for Roma, 5 for Man City).
10
Nicolas Pepe has been involved in more Europa League goals than any other player this season (6 goals, 4 assists).
10
Arsenal have had 10 players sent off in 80 games in all competitions under Mikel Arteta, twice as many as any other Premier League club since the Spaniard's first game in charge in December 2019.
12
12 no more. This defeat snapped Arsenal's Europa League record 12-game away game unbeaten streak (since 2009-10).
22
This is the first time a former Arsenal manager (Unai Emery, in this case) has beaten them since George Graham's Tottenham Hotspur won 2-1 at White Hart Lane in a Premier League encounter in November 1999, nearly 22 years ago.
59
Since making his Manchester United debut on Feb 1, 2020, Bruno Fernandes has been involved in 59 goals in the PL and in European competitions. In that time frame, only Lionel Messi (69) has more between players in Europe's top 5 leagues.