Favourites Arsenal and Atletico Madrid have secured first leg leads in their respective UEFA Europa League (UEL) quarter-final games on Thursday night.

Arsenal thrashed CSKA Moscow 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium with first half goals from Aaron Ramsey (2) and Alexandre Lacazette (2) while Alexandre Golovin got the consolation goal for the visitors on 15 minutes.

Spanish side Atletico Madrid also scored all their goals in the first half in a 2-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon with Koke and Antoine Griezmann getting the goals.

In the other last eight 1st leg games played on Thursday night, Timo Werner scored the only goal of the game to help his RB Leipzig side to a 1-0 home win over French side Olympique Marseille while Lazio stars like Senad Lulic, Marco Parolo, Felipe Anderson and Ciro Immobile were all on target in a 4-2 win over RB Salzburg at the Stadio Olimpico.

2nd leg clashes as regard the four quarter-final ties will take place next week Thursday.