Napoli are through to the Europa League knockout phase after winning a five-goal battle with Leicester City, a result which sees the Foxes drop to the second tier. Gli Azzurri went 2-0 up before the Foxes fought back to level, but Eljif Elmas scored his second to settle the match.
In tonight’s other deciders, Real Sociedad beat PSV Eindhoven to go through and Red Star Belgrade topped Group F.
And there will also be some big names dropping in from the Champions League – notably Xavi’s Barcelona who lost 3-0 away to FC Bayern on Wednesday night.
Who were qualified after tonight?
Group C was wide open and Leicester City – who started the night top of the group – could have finished bottom with only two points separating the four sides.
In the end, Spartak Moscow took the top spot thanks to a 1-0 win over Legia Warsaw who missed an injury-time penalty while Napoli went through in second.
The Foxes were sleeping when Adam Ounas and Elmas put the hosts in control, but they woke up to level through Jonny Evans and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, although Elmas’ second sealed Leicester’s fate.
Real Sociedad made it through to join Group B winners Monaco with a comprehensive 3-0 win over PSV Eindhoven. La Real started the game two points behind their visitors but blew them away thanks to two goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and a third from Alexander Sorloth. The Dutch side weren’t helped when Ibrahim Sangare saw red with 15 minutes to go.
Red Star Belgrade and Braga played out a 1-1 draw and that was enough for them both to progress from Group F, while Midtjylland missed out because they could only take a 0-0 draw from their game away to Ludogorets.
In Group H, Dinamo Zagreb faced already qualified West Ham and they made a great start when striker Mislav Orsic scored with just three minutes on the clock. And they held on for the win to take second place while Rapid Vienna beat Genk to finish third.
These teams are already through
Lyon stormed through from Group A with five wins from five along with Scottish Premier League team Rangers, who are heading to the preliminary round without their recently departed manager Steven Gerrard who is now with Aston Villa.
Monaco were already through from Group B, while in Group D and E, Frankfurt and Olimpiacos, Galatasaray, and Lazio were also in the hat.
Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis successfully navigated Group G with a game to spare. Die Werkself are having a fine season in the Bundesliga and will fancy their chances of going deep into this competition, as will West Ham who coasted through Group H with a great set of Europa League 2021 results.
The Hammers have four wins and a draw from their first five and, like Leverkusen, are going along nicely at home.
And who’s dropping in?
With the eight group winners all heading to the Round of 16, the teams in second place will take part in the Preliminary Round of 16 where they will meet the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League.
And Barcelona’s terrible night in Munich has dumped the Blaugrana out of the Champions League at the group stage. It all started badly when skipper Sergio Busquets was booked with just three minutes on the clock and when Thomas Muller opened the scoring for Die Bayern, the writing was on the wall.
The latest Europa League 2021 betting odds have immediately installedXavi’s team as joint favourites alongside Borussia Dortmund, who also crashed out of the Champions League but signed off with a 5-0 win over Besiktas on Tuesday night. Fellow Bundesliga giants RB Leipzig are also heading for the Europa preliminaries.
And what a night it was in Porto where Atletico Madrid pulled off qualification for the Champions League Round of 16 with a 3-1 win. Both teams were reduced to 10 men in a feisty affair and, after Antoine Griezmann put the Spaniards ahead, two injury-time goals secured a place for Los Rojiblancos.
Here at SBOTOP, we predicted Atleti would make it through because Diego Simeone always finds a way.
So Porto are in the Europa League along with Moldovan minnows Sheriff Tiraspol who beat Real Madrid on the way to their third place.
After their Wednesday fixture was snowed off, Atalanta and Villarreal met on Thursday and the Yellow Submarine surfaced with a 3-2 win to progress in the Champions League, so La Dea head to the Europa League. The ex-Champions League eight is made up by Sevilla and Zenit St Petersburg who landed in a group with Juventus and Chelsea. So I guess third place was the best the Russians could hope for.
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