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“A lesson for LASK against Man. United,” writes ORF.at, as midfielder Peter Michorl gives an honest assessment of his team’s performance: “We played attractive football in the second half, but it just isn’t enough at this level. United had four chances and scored four goals. That’s the difference and why they play for Man. United and we play for LASK.”

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“The whole 90 minutes from the whole team was excellent,” Solskjær told the club’s official website. “You can look at all [the goals] and say they’re high quality. Footballers with confidence will play and perform better than footballers without confidence. It’s harder and harder to pick an eleven.”

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Having ended his 32-game goal drought in Austria, James says he is determined to start finding the net on a more regular basis. “I give a lot more than goals,” the Welshman told manutd.com. “I try to create them and work hard for the team, but today was about getting off the mark.”

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The Times describes Ighalo’s first-half strike as “a goal so rich in quality that in ordinary circumstances it would have lifted tens of thousands of supporters off their seats”. The lack of fans at the Linzer Stadion, the paper adds, does “not lessen the importance or the beauty of the strike”.

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“Now they have the man who can put the ball on a six-pence.” writes the MEN, adding: “Maguire and Bailly were guilty of sending headers wide when they probably should have scored, given LASK were defending these corners with nobody guarding the posts.”

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The Manchester Evening News says Fernandes has given United “yet another new attacking threat” following his influential display against LASK, noting that the Portuguese midfielder “has had an impact on their ability to pose a question from dead ball situations”.

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Gerrard on the return leg - “It’s going to be extremely tough. We knew it would be. They’re a fantastic team with a lot of quality players, but we’ve got a very important game at the weekend (against Celtic). We need to get ourselves recovered and ready for that, and then we’ll see where we are next week.”

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Steven Gerrard, Rangers manager - “I think the way the game panned out we had a really good shape in the first half, but I wanted us to to be a bit more front-foot, more aggressive. I thought we showed them too much respect. obviously the penalty is a blow. Second half I thought we were much better. We were a bit more aggressive and we got our rewards. We created some good chances within the game. I think their second goal is class. That’s a high quality finish. At 2-1 you’re still thinking it’s not the end of the world, stay in there, we might get a late equaliser, but I’m extremely disappointed with the third goal.”

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Olympiacos head coach Pedro Martins to Cosmote TV

I am satisfied with the result under the circumstances, playing in an empty ground and being reduced to 10 players before the 30th minute. We played very well, with passion and will to win, we stuck to our game plan. We scored a great goal in its construction and it was a pity to concede that set-piece. I am confident that our journey in the competition doesn’t end here.

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Leverkusen defender, Jonathan Tah: “Rangers created a lot of pressure in the second half - but for the most part we managed to play down the threat. The substitutions were good, it’s always important to bring fresh players. For them then to come on and score is brilliant.”

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Leverkusen goalkeeper, Lukas Hradecky: “It’s nice that we were able to extend our successful streak. That was a very mature victory we produced today. The fact we’re using our chances so efficiently is making us very strong right now.”

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Olympiacos winger Giorgos Masouras

We are satisfied with our performance and I believe we were better and could have held on to victory, but Wolves got lucky in their equalizer. Now our rivals have gotten their away goal and have a slight advantage, but we will travel to England to do our best as always.

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Olympiacos goalkeeper José Sá on Cosmote TV

It’s a positive result, taking into account that we played for more than an hour with 10 players against a very powerful side. We will fight to qualify in the second leg. In the previous round, we proved that we can qualify even after losing the home leg.  

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Borna Barišić, Rangers defender: “It was a difficult game. We know Leverkusen are a very good team and they showed that tonight. Congratulations to them. At the start of the game we didn’t want to be too open. We were more aggressive in the second half, but we also conceded two. That’s probably the best team we have faced (in the competition). We have a hard job to do now in Leverkusen, but we are not going to surrender.”

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Wolves winger Diogo Jota on Cosmote TV

It was a typical game against two sides, when one of them have a player dismissed. When we were 11 v 11, Olympiacos had possession, but that changed after the red card. It was a defining moment of the match, as we were able to get more attacking afterwards and take the initiative. This first leg suggests that there is no clear favourite for qualification.

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FULL-TIME VERDICT

Two errors conditioned the match for Olympiacos: Semedo’s foul that led to his dismissal and the opening of the wall that allowed the equalizer in. But Wolves were far from their best tonight and the Piraeus outfit were able to hold on to this 1-1 draw. A valuable result for the Greek side, since they played for more than an hour in numerical disadvantage. This result and the match-up of the two teams leaves the tie wide open ahead of the second leg…

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A much improved performance from Rangers in the second half. The arrival of Kamberi injected some forward impetus and despite conceding a second against the run of play, Gerrard’s side managed to pull one back through Edmundson. Bailey’s third put paid to any notion of another improbable comeback and Leverkusen are now strong favourites to progress to the last-8 having ended Rangers’ unbeaten run of 17 European games at Ibrox dating back to 2011.