Key events
TABLE
Lyon now lead 4-2, Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez, who was born in Venezuela but plays for England at youth level, with the goal!
Forest 4-0 Ferencvaros (McAtee pen 90)
This is a handsome win for Dyche and his men. Their form looked poor after the Braga loss but the last week has been just what the doctor ordered.
Red Star Belgrade 1-1 Celta Vigo (Duarte 89)
And instantly it’s 1-1!
Red Star Belgrade 0-1 Celta Vigo (Lopez 87)
That goal puts Celta down to 16th.
Lyon lead PAOK 3-2 with a couple of minutes left! Adam Karabec with the goal soon after missing a penalty!
Goal: Aston Villa 3-2 Salzburg (Jimoh 87)
Villa Park is sent into raptures! A cool, cool finish by the substitute Jamaldeen Jimoh after a break down the right! Aston Villa are back from 2-0 down and they’re going to win this. A first senior goal for the 19-year-old Jimoh. Great story.
Sturm Graz now lead Brann! That will knock Brann out of the playoff places, and Young Boys climb to 24th!
Real Betis 2=1 Feyenoord (Tengstedt 77)
Panathinaikos 1-1 Roma (Jan Ziolkowski 80)
Ten-man Roma back into the top eight!
Meanwhile, Genk score a belter against Malmo and lead 2-1!
The table is moving too fast for me to even comment on it! We cannae take much more of this!
LATEST TABLE:
“Hi Luke!” writes Benjamin.
“Unclear to me why Villa decided to give Salzburg two goals and an hour before we showed up, but perhaps that’s just how confident Emery has the lads, now?
“Lovely intricate passing work at times in the last 15 mins or so. When Villa are good, they really can be very good…
”Am really intrigued to see whether the stripping of several critical cogs in the midfield derails this team for the run-in … rather hoping not!”
Midtjylland are of course playing Dinamo Zagreb, not Genk, thanks to Vlado for the email.
Midtjylland 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Victor Bak Jensen 74)
Villa third, Forest 11th, as it stands.
FCSB 1-1 Fenerbahce (Cisotti 71)
Goal: Aston Villa 2-2 Salzburg (Mings 76)
Matty Cash digs out a sensational cross to the far post, Tyrone Mings climbs highest to head it in! Can Villa win it? Fantastic header by Mings, making up for his earlier error.
Midtjylland 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb – the Danish club could finish top two!
“Apart from on commentary, where else on Earth can you hear the word aplomb being used?” asks Dave via email.
Lyon 2-2 PAOK (Meite 66)
We are approaching the business end of the business end of the Europa League league phase now. And I’m excited.
Dinamo Zagreb are now 24th, with Ludogorets up to 23rd.
Goal: Celtic 4-2 Utrecht (Trusty 66)
Auston Trusty steadies the ship. There’s a close up of Celtic fans celebrating, one of whom is clutching a bottle of vodka. Well, why not.
Goal: Villa 1-2 Salzburg (Rogers 64)
A nice give and go from the England forward and he tucks a shot inside the near post with aplomb.
Have you done anything with aplomb recently and if not, why not?
Goal: Celtic 3-2 Utrecht (Blake 62)
Utrecht really are right back in it! Will it be ruled out for offside? Perhaps not. Lovely hit by the former Watford man, a flowing move and a sweet shot into the bottom corner. And it looks OK for offside.
Villa down to fourth with Freiburg and Midtjylland above them in third and second respectively.
Panathinaikos 1-0 Roma (Taborda 58)
Ten-man Roma trail in Greece. That pushes them out of the top eight! Bologna slot in the final automatic spot as it stands.
Goal: Forest 3-0 Ferencvaros (Jesus 55)
Forest are back, baby! Dyche is at the wheel.
Jesus now has six goals in this season’s competition, this one is a sweet hit from the edge that nestles in the corner. His finish and volley on the turn at Brentford on Sunday was pure class, and confidence is clearly coursing through the young man’s veins.
Sturm Graz 1-0 Brann(Kiteishvili 56)
Lyon 2-1 PAOK (Merah 55)
BOOM! What a hit by the centre-back Sandro Lauper for Young Boys! He absolutely smokes a right-footed volley from a corner that flies unerringly into the net! It’s 2-2 now between Stuttgart and Young Boys.
Goal: Aston Villa 0-2 Salzburg (Yeo 49)
Salzburg are on fire! Moussa Yeo flicks a clever finish with his heel into the net, the assist coming from Kerim Alajbegović, who is a great talent according to the pundit Julien Laurens. A well-worked goal, but Villa look a bit lethargic at the back.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv 0-2 Bologna 2 (Orsolini 47)
Midtjylland 1-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Gue-Sung Cho 49)
Second halves have begun!
The second half, and indeed all the second halves, have begun.
Ally McCoist was speculating, before kick-off, that Mourinho deliberately delayed Benfica’s second half last night so they’d know what they needed. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
So Roma, Braga, Porto, Real Betis, Midtjylland, Aston Villa, Freiburg and Lyon are going straight to the last 16, by virtue of finishing in the top eight. As it stands.
But for the presence of Midtjylland, that would be the easiest-to-spell top eight in Europe League league phase history, my statistician tells me.
“I don’t know what to say about the Celtic penalty, Luke, except that it wasn’t a penalty,” emails Simon. “The Celtic player headed the ball down on to the arm, which was pointing downwards, of the defender who was powerless to do anything about it and wasn’t even looking at the ball, which would have hit the ground half a second later about twelve yards from goal.
“Another case of VAR refereeing the game from off the field and compelling the referee to change his decision for an ‘error’ that was neither clear nor obvious. The time it took the referee to make the decision suggested he still had his doubts even on viewing all the angles, but gave it anyway having been called to the monitor. At least it shouldn’t affect the result of the game, but still. Apart from that Celtic have been decent against a poor Utrecht side, who still could have had a second goal just before half time but for a good save by Schmeichel.”
Live table below.
Ludogorets are going to sneak into 24th place as it stands: they lead Nice thanks to Petar Stanic’s 42nd-minute goal.
Celtic, Forest and Villa are all going through – but Villa were nailed on for the last 16 already, and Forest had already assured their place in some kind of playoff. O’Neill’s side needed to win to be sure and they’ve done the business so far.
It’s all looking a bit half-timey now, and here is the live table.
Genk 1–1 Malmo (Heymans pen 45)
Celtic 3-1 Utrecht (De Wit 44)
Utrecht back in it? A classy strike by Danny de Wit after a slick passing move. Defensively a bit weak from Celtic though.
Porto 3-1 Rangers (Fernandez OG 41)
Bednarek celebrates but that’s an OG. Rangers are collapsing after a bright start.
Freiburg are up to second on goal difference as it stands.
Stuttgart 2-1 Young Boys 1 (Gigovic 42)
Basel 0-1Plzen 1 (Panos 39)
A lovely clean hit by Gigovic screams into the top corner in Stuttgart.
Goal: Porto 2-1 Rangers (Moura 36)
A horrible mix-up between James Tavernier and Jack Butland ends with Moura tapping in. We’ve seen some dreadful defending across many of the games already! No wonder some people call it the losers’ cup.
Lyon 1-1 PAOK (Himbert 33)
Maccabi Tel-Aviv 0-1 Bologna 1 (Rowe 35)
Ollie Watkins goes off injured for Aston Villa. Looks like he’s tweaked something as he stretched for a ball in front of him.
Goal: Aston Villa 0-1 Salzburg (Konate 33)
What is it with all this playing out from the back nonsense? Tyrone Mings gets caught in possession near the Aston Villa byline. Karim Konate then tucks a shot towards the unguarded net at the far post.
Victor Lindelof chases back to try and clear but knocks it into his own net. Was it on target? I fancy that is an own-goal. And easy to say from here, but Lindelof could have left it to roll out for a goal kick, I think.
And another!
Real Betis 2-0 Feyenoord (Ezzalzouli 32)
Antony dinks in a lovely curling cross, that only needs the merest of touches off Ezzalzouli’s forehead to nestle in the far corner of the net. Lovely goal.
Goal: Porto 1-1 Rangers (Rodrigo Mora 27)
Porto swarm forward in numbers and the Rangers defence looks all over the gaff. Mora cushions a square ball from the right and tucks the ball home. Looks like a lively game there: A brilliant last-ditch tackle by Emmanuel Fernandez saves what looks a certain goal!
It’s a good, old-fashioned tackle that takes a bit of the man and there’s a hint of a penalty check, but the referee waves play on.
The live table is here. Forest are 11th as it stands.
PAOK lead Lyon 1-0 thanks to a goal by Georgios Giakoumakis on 20min, so Villa are top.
Celtic are 20th, comfortably making it into the knockouts, albeit in the lower, unseeded section of the playoff places.
Other, common-or garden goals:
Lyon 0 PAOK 1 (Georgios Giakoumakis 20)
Maccabi Tel-Aviv 0 Bologna 1 (Riccardo Orsolini 19)
FCSB 0 Fenerbahce 1 (Ismail Yuksek 18)
Forest 2-0 Ferencvaros (Jesus 22)
The visitors are caught out again trying to play around at or near the back. Yates dives in and wins it, Igor Jesus dances to the edge of the box and hits a low shot that deflects into the net at the far post.
Goal: Celtic 3-0 Utrecht (Engels pen 19)
Celtic needed to win. Celtic are going to win.
Antony has Betis ahead at Feyenoord with a lovely shot from the edge.
Goal: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Ferencvaros (Bence Otvos OG 17)
Ferencvaros get caught trying to play out from the back. James McAtee lays the ball off to Ryan Yates. Yates fires a good, direct cross to the far post. Bence Otvos turns the ball into his own net.
Looks like Celtic may have a penalty for “handball”.
And they do! But there’s a goal at Forest …
Gianluca Mancini is sent off for Roma at Panathinaikos after 15min. The seventh red card of his career, apparently.
“Stuttgart scored two very simple goals in rapid succession,” writes the friend of the live blog, Kári Tulinius. “Lorenz Assignon crossed low from the left to Denis Undav, who was unmarked in the box and finished smartly. The latter then turned provider by putting Ermedin Demirovic through, who didn’t miss. And even though both goals came within just a few minutes of the start, the goals felt like they’d been coming. So far it’s been men versus, well, Young Boys.”
Like it, thanks Kári.
Ferencvaros hit the woodwork at Forest. A fine glancing near-post header by Kristoffer Zachariassen cannons off the post.
Goal: Celtic 2-0 Utrecht (Viergever OG 10)
A defensive horror show from Utrecht! Nygren nabs an errant pass from the keeper and crosses instantly. Nick Viergever turns the ball into his own net.
