LONDON: Former European champions Olympique Marseille survived an anxious night to draw 0-0 at home to Salzburg and reach the Europa League last 32 on the final night of group matches on Thursday where they were joined by Athletic Bilbao and Red Star Belgrade.
Marseille advanced from Group ‘I’ and Bilbao avoided an ignominious group stage exit as they won 2-0 at Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk to clinch top spot in Group ‘J’.
In the battle for second spot in Group ‘H’ behind already-qualified Arsenal, Red Star beat Cologne 1-0 to extend their European hopes beyond Christmas for the first time in 26 years.
AEK Athens, FC Copenhagen, Lokomotiv Moscow, Astana and Ludogorets Razgrad took the other five qualifying places of the eight up for grabs on the final night of group action.
AEK needed a point and got it from a 0-0 draw at Austria Vienna to join AC Milan in the next phase from Group ‘D’ while Copenhagen and Lokomotiv both advanced from the tightly contested Group ‘F’ after victories over FC Sheriff Tiraspol and FC Zlin respectively, with a 1-1 draw at Hoffenheim proving enough for Bulgaria’s Ludogorets to qualify from Group ‘C’.
One of the stories of the night came in Group ‘A’ where Astana became the first Kazakhstan club to survive the group stages of a European club competition as Marin Anicic scored in a 1-0 victory at Slavia Prague which saw them leapfrog their hosts.
Slavia had needed only a draw to join group winners Villarreal in the last 32.
Sixteen clubs had already booked their places in the round of 32, which will also include eight third-place teams from the group stage of the Champions League.
Elsewhere, already eliminated Everton recorded its first victory of the campaign, a 3-0 win at Apollon Limassol, courtesy of two first-half strikes by Ademola Lookman and another by Nikola Vlasic three minutes before the final whistle.
Rudi Garcia’s Marseille, fourth in Ligue 1, could ill afford any slip-up against group winners Salzburg who kept a fifth successive clean sheet in the competition.
With news that Turkish club Konyaspor were ahead in Portugal against Vitoria, defeat would have been curtains for Marseille but they held on in the Stade Velodrome and could breathe a little easier as Konyaspor conceded a late equaliser.
La Liga side Bilbao dashed Zorya’s hopes of continuing their European journey into the new year as late goals from Aritz Aduriz and Raul Garcia earned them the three points.
Victory would have seen Zorya progress at the expense of the Spaniards but Bilbao ended up pipping Swedes Ostersund to first place in Group ‘J’ after they drew 1-1 at Hertha Berlin.
Red Star, European champions in 1991, made the knockout stages as they finished runners-up to Arsenal who crushed Belarus champions BATE Borisov 6-0.
A 52,000 crowd, including several thousand from Cologne, watched in the Rajko Mitic stadium where forward Slavoljub Srnic struck a 22nd-minute winner.
Ludogorets drew at Hoffenheim as they secured runners-up spot behind already-qualified Braga, who were beaten 2-1 away by Istanbul Basaksehir who finished a point behind Ludogorets in third spot.
GATTUSO DEFEATED
Gennaro Gattuso is still waiting for a first win as Milan coach after a 2-0 loss at Rijeka following their embarrassing draw at Serie A minnows Benevento at the weekend.
A perfectly executed free kick by Jakov Puljic shocked the Italian powerhouses seven minutes into the game and Mario Gavranovic extended that lead two minutes into the second half.
But the Croatian outfit missed out on joining Milan in the last 32 as AEK pipped them to second courtesy of a goalless draw at Austria Vienna, a fifth consecutive draw in the group for the Greeks.
Pieros Sotiriou and Michael Lueftner scored in the space of three minutes early in the second half to help Copenhagen to a 2-0 victory over Moldovan side Sheriff and a place in the next stage. Group ‘F’ had remained wide open until the last round of matches.
A draw would have been enough for the Moldovan champions to make the next round for the first time.
Aleksei Miranchuk scored in the 70th minute and Jefferson Farfan added another five minutes later for Lokomotiv to seal a 2-0 away victory over Czech side Zlin.
Lokomotiv finished top of the group with 11 points, followed by Copenhagen two points behind. Sheriff also finished on nine points but were eliminated by their head-to-head results.
Atalanta, coming off the back of a stunning 5-1 win at Everton a fortnight ago, edged out in-form Lyon 1-0 to finish top of Group ‘E’ as Andrea Petagna scored his fourth goal of the season in the 10th minute.
Everton made it two wins from two under new manager Sam Allardyce by cruising to a 3-0 victory over Apollon Limassol in Cyprus, although the former England boss did not travel with the squad due to a medical appointment.
Forward Ademola Lookman, 20, scored a double with close-season signing Nikola Vlasic adding a late third to salvage some pride for Everton as they avoided finishing bottom of the group.
Former Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic’s brilliant overhead kick helped Zenit St Petersburg beat Real Sociedad 3-1 to finish first ahead of the Spaniards in Group ‘L’, while in Group ‘B’ a hat-trick by Junior Moraes gave Dynamo Kiev a 4-1 victory over Partizan Belgrade as they topped the standings.
A 2-1 home loss to Lugano cost Steaua Bucharest top spot in Group ‘G’ with Viktoria Plzen nipping in ahead of them after winning 2-0 at Hapoel Beer Sheva.
Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017