Tottenham and Rangers both claimed victories to top their UEFA Cup groups on Thursday night as the final pieces of the jigsaw of European qualification fell into place with an unprecedented nine British teams through.
Tottenham beat Dynamo Bucharest 3-1 at White Hart Lane to top Group B to ensure they avoid the big names in the last 32 such as Champions League rejects Werder Bremen, Benfica and Spartak Moscow.
Rangers meanwhile had a 1-0 win over Partizan Belgrade at Ibrox thanks to defender Alan Hutton in the 55th minute to top Group A.
Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle, who played on Wednesday, are also through.
Together with the Champions League qualifiers Celtic, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, Britain have a total of nine teams who will fight it out in the knockout stages next spring.
After an uninspiring first half, Hutton's first goal of the season gave the home side all three points.
The Ibrox full-back headed a Nacho Novo free-kick past Partizan goalkeeper Nikolas Asperogenis for what was the only real highlight of a dire encounter.
Stand-in skipper Gavin Rae hailed the efforts of Rangers' makeshift team, saying afterwards: "It was excellent to be captain, these European nights are the reason I came here," Rae told BBC Sport Scotland.
"We wanted the result to finish top, there were a lot of changes and sometimes it can be hard to get going, but I thought the boys did really well," he said.
And Jermain Defoe struck twice against Dynamo Bucharest at White Hart Lane as Tottenham secured top place in their group.
Defoe struck either side of the interval, while Dimitar Berbatov maintained his goalscoring streak with the opener as Spurs completed their 10th straight win at home.
"We passed the ball well, and the spirit is good at the moment," England forward Defoe old ITV4. "Everybody is playing well, and we deserved the win. I thought [midfielder] Tom [Huddlestone] was fantastic tonight, passing the ball and getting us ticking."
And Spurs boss Martin Jol was happy to have earned top spot in the group.
The Dutchman told ITV4: "We didn't want to get a drop-out from the Champions League, it's why we wanted to be number one in the group. Europe has certainly been a big challenge for us and a great experience. I am very pleased."
"I think we did well. Dynamo Bucharest are 14 points ahead of everyone [in the Romanian league] and they will almost certainly play in the Champions League next year. If they are as strong as they are in Romania we knew they must have a good team," he said. "I don't know what happened to them here but maybe you have to give us credit as well."
Jean-Philippe Mendy scored in injury-time but the game had been over before he found the net.
Elsewhere Bayer Leverkusen made a dramatic jump from fifth to third with a 2-1 home victory over Turks Besiktas to go through from Group B.
In a late flourish, Bernd Schneider then Sergej Barbarez scored for Leverkusen before Ricardinho hit a 90th minute penalty for Besiktas.
Italy's Livorno earned a last-ditch qualification at the hands of French club Auxerre from Group A.
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