Thursday 27 November 2014 23:28, UK
The line-up for the last 32 of the Europa League began to look a little clearer on Thursday night with Everton, Trabzonspor and Fiorentina among the teams to progress to the knockout stages.
Everton will go through as Group H winners with one game to spare after pulling off a fine 2-0 away victory over Wolfsburg.
The Toffees' qualification for the next round was actually confirmed during half-time of this match after the other game in the pool, Krasnodar against Lille, finished in a 1-1 draw.
Roberto Martinez's men were already 1-0 up by that point thanks to Romelu Lukaku, and a Kevin Mirallas breakaway strike added to that to wrap up an impressive night's work.
Krasnodar bowed out of the competition despite taking the lead through Brazilian striker Ari, with Nolan Roux's 79th-minute header snatching a point for Lille.
Trabzonspor joined already-qualified Legia Warsaw from Group L with a 3-1 win at home to eliminated Metalist Kharkiv.
The Turkish hosts led through Essaid Belkalem's strike but an equaliser from Volodymyr Homenyuk and the dismissal of Carl Medjani threatened to undo their hard work.
However, Mehmet Ekici fired Trabzonspor back in front late on with Sefa Yilmaz then making sure of the win.
They will now battle it out with Legia for top spot after the Polish club were edged out 1-0 by Lokeren. Hans Vanaken's early goal proved the difference in Belgium.
Ten-man Fiorentina survived a second-half onslaught to beat Guingamp 2-1 and secure top spot in Group K.
The Serie A club established a two-goal lead through Marko Marin and Khouma Babacar but Claudio Beauvue's penalty rocked the visitors just before half-time.
Jose Maria Basanta was dismissed for his part in the incident leading to the spot-kick but La Viola held on for the points.
PAOK Salonika could still join Fiorentina in the next round after two late goals from Stefanos Athanasiadis earned the Greeks a 2-0 win away to Dinamo Minsk.
Feyenoord secured their passage to the round of 32 with a 2-0 win over holders Sevilla in Group G.
The home side cashed in with goals from Jens Toornstra and Karim El Ahmadi putting them through as a result of Rijeka beating 10-man Standard Liege 2-0.
Brazilian striker Moises had already put Rijeka ahead when Dino Arslanagic was sent off while conceding a penalty, which Andrej Kramaric finished off to knock Standard out of the competition.
Dynamo Kiev's 2-0 victory at home to Rio Ave saw the Ukrainians advance from Group J, but Steaua Bucharest lost 1-0 to AaB to leave the two clubs battling it out for the second qualification spot.
Jeremain Lens and Miguel Veloso were the scorers for Dynamo, while Thomas Enevoldsen's goal lifted AaB above Steaua into second spot with one round of fixtures remaining.
Group I remains wide open with Napoli, Sparta Prague and Young Boys all in contention. Sparta and Napoli played out a goalless draw on Thursday while Young Boys were 3-1 winners at already-eliminated Slovan Bratislava.
Guillaume Hoarau's early penalty was cancelled out by Seydouba Soumah for Slovan, but a brace from Yuya Kubo settled matters in Young Boys' favour.
Inter Milan beat Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2-1 to seal top spot in Group F. The visitors opened the scoring through Ruslan Rotan, but Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic saved Yevhen Konoplyanka to keep his side in touch and goals from Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Dani Osvaldo turned the match around.
Second spot will be filled by either Dnipro or St Etienne, who played out a 1-1 draw with FK Qarabag. Vuqar Nadirov put the Azerbaijani visitors ahead before Ricky van Wolfswinkel stabbed home an equaliser.
Tottenham and Besiktas secured the top two places in Group C.
Benjamin Stambouli scored the only goal as Spurs beat Partizan Belgrade 1-0 in a match which was temporarily suspended after individuals encroached on to the pitch in three separate first-half incidents.
Besiktas progressed with a 2-2 draw at Asteras Tripoli despite going down to 10 men.
Demba Ba opened the scoring for Besiktas before Gokhan Tore added the second from the penalty spot.
Substitute Jeronimo Barrales headed Asteras back into contention, with things going from bad to worse for the Turkish visitors when Atiba Hutchinson was sent off for his second bookable offence. Facundo Parra then levelled the scores in the 83rd minute but Besiktas held on for a point.
Celtic won through to the knockout stages for the first time despite a 3-1 defeat by already-qualified Salzburg.
Alan struck twice for Salzburg and Naby Keita added a third, with Celtic's only reply from the boot of Stefan Johansen.
However, Ronny Deila's men cannot be caught in Group D after Dinamo Zagreb lost 1-0 at Astra to Sadat Bukari's goal.
Group A is a three-way battle between Borussia Monchengladbach, Villarreal and FC Zurich.
Gladbach and Villarreal occupy the top two spots heading into the final round following a 2-2 draw. The La Liga side twice took the lead through Luciano Vietto and Denis Cheryshev, only for Raffael and Granit Xhaka to level for the Germans.
Zurich fell behind to a goal from Brazilian forward Rosa but fought back to beat Apollon Limassol 3-1, thanks to Yassine Chikhaoui's double plus another from Berat Djimsiti.
Group B will also go down to the wire after Torino and Club Brugge fought out a goalless draw and HJK Helsinki snatched a last-minute 2-1 win over FC Copenhagen, who were dumped out of the competition.
Macoumba Kandji was the hero for HJK Helsinki, heading home in stoppage time just three minutes after Per Nilsson's equaliser had cancelled out Gideon Baah's 28th minute opener.
Dinamo Moscow made sure of top spot in Group E with a 2-1 win over Panathinaikos.
Marcus Berg headed Panathinaikos into the lead before William Vainqueur's shot was deflected to level the scores after the break. Aleksei Ionov's strike added the Russian's second goal and claimed the victory.
The group's other match between Estoril and PSV Eindhoven was abandoned at half-time due to a waterlogged pitch.
Estoril were leading 3-2 when play was halted, with the match to be played to a conclusion on Friday afternoon. A win for PSV would see them secure second place in the group.
