PARIS: AS Roma took a big step towards qualifying for the Europa League last 16 with a 2-0 win over VfB Stuttgart on Thursday, after Aston Villa and Olympique Lyonnais had earlier become the first teams through to the knockout stage with a game to spare.

Jadon Sancho scored his first goal for Aston Villa to lift his new club past Fenerbahce 1-0 while Lyon clinched a last-16 spot with a 1-0 victory over Young Boys in Bern. Freiburg all but joined them by beating Maccabi Tel Aviv by the same score.

Lyon and Villa are level on 18 points with six wins and a loss atop the standings with one game to go the in the league phase. Freiburg are one point behind in third and would have sealed the qualification if Porto hadn’t scored a late equaliser against Viktoria Plzen.

Like in the Champions League, the top eight finishers advance automatically after eight rounds to the round of 16 while the teams placed from nine to 24 enter a two-leg playoff to progress.

Nottingham Forest slid to a costly defeat away to Braga, Celtic blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Bologna and leave their qualification hopes hinging on next week’s final round of games as arch-rivals Rangers bowed out despite a first win of the competition.

Roma midfielder Niccolo Pisilli slotted in to give his side the lead shortly before halftime and added another in stoppage time to seal the win — their fourth in a row in the Europa League — and move his side to sixth on 15 points.

Pisilli scored his first goal of the season to break the deadlock in the 40th. Matias Soule’s through ball broke through the Stuttgart defence and Pisilli ran onto it before firing high across goalkeeper Alexander Nubel. He crowned his performance with a second goal, finishing off Paulo Dybala’s assist into the net to put the game to bed.

Stuttgart started the day in ninth but dropped to 12th. They are two points behind Real Betis, the last team in the direct qualification zone to the last 16.

Villa took the lead in Istanbul in the 25th minute as Sancho steered a precise downward header into the net after a deflected cross from Matty Cash.

The second half brought a flurry of action and Fenerbahce thought they had equalised in the 75th minute when Kerem Akturkoglu found the net, only for it to be disallowed after an offside in the build-up and Villa held on for the win as goalkeeper Marco Bizot produced a string of key saves.

“I’m just happy to get my first goal for Aston Villa and to top it off with that, it’s a win,” Sancho, who joined on loan from Manc­hester United in September, told TNT Sports. “Honestly, I know I can do a lot more. I’m very hard on myself in that aspect.

“It’s nice to have a manager that backs you and obviously believes in you. Again, every opportunity I get I’m going to try and do 100% and hopefully I can deliver goals more.”

Lyon secured their place in the next round with a hard-fought win over Young Boys, as Ainsley Maitland-Niles struck deep into first-half stoppage time in Bern.

A late header from Igor Matanovic gave Freiburg a 1-0 win at home against Maccabi.

Danish side Midtjylland are on the cusp of a last-16 spot despite dropping to fourth place on 16 points after a penalty in the tenth minute of stoppage time from Joachim Soltvedt rescued a 3-3 draw for SK Brann against in a highly entertaining Nordic clash in the Norwegian city of Bergen.

FOREST BEATEN

Braga climbed up to fifth, level on points with Midtjylland, after their 1-0 win left Forest facing the prospect of going into the play-offs.

Morgan Gibbs-White had a penalty saved early in the second half and Braga went straight down the other end and scored as Forest captain Ryan Yates bundled into his own net. To compound Forest’s troubles, Elliot Anderson was sent off in stoppage time.

“Very frustrating. One minute of madness. A game we never looked in trouble,” Forest boss Sean Dyche told TNT Sports, with Braga not even managing a single shot on target. “You might come away with a draw, but you shouldn’t really lose that game. I don’t think they hardly had a real chance, then we had a goalmouth scramble and even that can’t go in.”

Ferencvaros dropped to seventh after they were held 1-1 by Panathinaikos while Betis’ strong run in the competition took a hit as they lost 2-0 at PAOK, where a goal from Andrija Zivkovic and a penalty from Giorgos Giakoumakis secured the Greek side a win.

Betis have 14 points in eighth, the same as ninth-placed Porto, who drew 1-1 with Plzen thanks to substitute Deniz Gul’s equaliser in the final minute.

Celtic had to settle for a point at Bologna and sit 24th in the 36-team table, occupying the final play-off berth. The Scottish champions host winless Utrecht in their final game next Thursday.

Martin O’Neill’s side got off to a flying start in Bologna with two first-half goals, as Reo Hatate struck early and Auston Trusty doubled the lead before the break. However, between the two goals Hatate was sent off after receiving two yellow cards.

Bologna responded through Thijs Dallinga before Jonathan Rowe brought them level with a goal in the 72nd minute.

“We’ve given ourselves a chance — that’s all, a chance — of qualifying. And from that viewpoint, I’m delighted,” said O’Neill. “My own view is that if we had stayed with 11 men, I think we would have won the game.”

Rangers were eliminated despite their 1-0 victory over Ludogorets at Ibrox, where Mohamed Diomande grabbed the only goal.

Disturbances in the stands marred many of the evening matches.

In France, tensions escalated between Nice fans and Go Ahead Eagles supporters, prompting security forces to intervene for several minutes before order was restored, with Nice ultimately securing a 3-1 win.

Utrecht’s match against Genk experienced a half-hour delay when Dutch police were forced to clear a section of the stadium. Local media reported that visiting Genk fans without tickets had breached the area, prompting the intervention.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2026