Football
PA Sport 6y

Europa: Marseille and Athletic Bilbao advance to round of 32

Former Champions League winners Marseille were among the eight teams to qualify for the knockout stage of Europa League on the final night of group matches on Thursday.

Athletic Bilbao, Copenhagen, Lokomotiv Moscow, AEK Athens, Astana, Ludogorets and Red Star Belgrade also got the results they needed to advance to the round of 32.

The 24 teams who advanced through the group stage will be joined by the third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage.

Atletico Madrid, CSKA Moskow, RB Leipzig and Sporting Lisbon will be seeded with the Europa League group winners for Monday's draw, while Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, Napoli and Spartak Moscow are unseeded.

Marseille sealed safe passage as runners-up in Group I thanks to a goalless draw with group winners Salzburg, while Vitoria and Konyaspor both eliminated after a 1-1 draw.

Athletic Bilbao topped Group J by winning 2-0 at Zorya, with second-half goals from Aritz Aduriz and Raul Garcia. 

Ostersunds settled for second after a 1-1 draw at Hertha Berlin, in which Brwa Nouri saw a late penalty saved by Jonathan Klinsmann -- a U.S. youth international and the son of former German great Jurgen Klinsmann -- on his pro debut.

Arsenal dumped BATE Borisov out of the Europa League by beating the Belarusian outfit 6-0 in front of a record-low crowd at Emirates Stadium.

Mathieu Debuchy, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Olivier Giroud and Mohamed Elneny all struck for the Gunners, with Denis Polyakov conceding an own goal to boot.

Arsenal's thumping victory coupled with Red Star Belgrade's 1-0 win over Cologne left BATE eliminated at the group stages.

Red Star finished second in Group H, with Slavoljub Srnic's goal enough to overcome Cologne and secure knockout qualification.

FC Copenhagen emerged from a three-way qualification fight to reach the Europa League knockout stages thanks to a 2-0 win over Sheriff.

Goals from Pieros Sotiriou and Michael Luftner were enough to send the Danish capital outfit into the round of 32 at the expense of Sheriff, who had Jairo sent off.

Lokomotiv Moscow joined Copenhagen as the other side to progress from Group F, the Russians prevailing 2-0 at Zlin thanks to second-half goals from Aleksei Miranchuk and Jefferson Farfan.

Zoran Gajic's red card for two bookable offences left the hosts hamstrung, and Lokomotiv took full advantage.

Braga managed to top Group C despite losing 2-1 at Istanbul Basaksehir, Edin Visca and Emre Belozoglu on target for the Turkish hosts and Raul Silva in reply for the visitors.

Ludogorets' 1-1 draw at Hoffenheim proved enough to claim second spot, and deny Basaksehir a place in the knockout stages.

Philipp Ochs put Hoffenheim ahead, only for Wanderson's goal just after the hour to ensure Ludogorets' passage despite Claudiu Keseru's late red card.

Group D winners AC Milan fell 2-0 at Rijeka, but the hosts still failed to qualify for the next stage -- as AEK Athens secured a goalless draw at Austria Vienna.

Jakov Puljic and Mario Gavranovic found the net for Rijeka, but that proved in vain as Greek capital club AEK grabbed the draw they needed to progress.

Ademola Lookman scored twice in six first-half minutes as Everton claimed a 3-0 win at Apollon Limassol, in a match where both sides had already failed to qualify from Group E.

Nikola Vlasic also found the net for Sam Allardyce's side, while Atalanta secured top spot with Andrea Petagna's goal securing a 1-0 win over Lyon.

Astana stole second spot in Group A thanks to their 1-0 victory at Slavia Prague, where Marin Anicic struck the winner.

Group winners Villarreal went down 1-0 at Maccabi Tel Aviv, who had Nick Blackman to thank for the winner in a meaningless game.

Dynamo Kiev topped Group B with a 4-1 win over Partizan Belgrade, with Junior Moraes blasting a hat trick.

Captain Mykola Morozyuk started the rout, while Marko Jevtovic found the net for the well-beaten visitors. Despite their loss, Partizan had already secured second spot and progression to the last 32.

Both already eliminated, Young Boys stole a 2-1 home win over Skenderbeu thanks to Roger Assale's last-gasp added-time winner, where captain Guillaume Hoarau had already found the net and Enis Gavazaj had put the visitors into an early lead.

Victoria Plzen clinched first place in Group G with a 2-0 win at Hapoel Be'er Sheva, while Steaua Bucharest finished second despite a 2-1 loss to Lugano.

Lazio lost 3-2 at Zulte Waregem but had already won Group K, and Nice lost 1-0 at Vitesse Arnhem but had already sealed the runners-up spot.

Zenit St Petersburg topped Group L with a 3-1 win at Real Sociedad, who had previously sealed second place.

Already-eliminated pair Vardar and Rosenborg played out a 1-1 draw.

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