Everton, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal, Hamburger SV and FC Basel all won on Wednesday to advance to the UEFA Cup's round-of-32.
Everton became the first English club to advance past the group stage when Tim Cahill scored in the 85th minute for a 1-0 win over 10-man Zenit St. Petersburg.
Russian champions Zenit played the final 60 minutes down a man after Nicolas Lombaerts was sent off for handball. Everton striker Mikel Arteta had the subsequent penalty kick saved by Zenit goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev.
PHOTO: AFP
FC Nuremberg kept their hopes alive by rallying to beat AZ Alkmaar 2-1, with substitute Marek Mintal scoring in the 83rd and 85th minutes. Demy De Zeeuw gave AZ the lead in the 29th minute with a right-footed shot from 12m.
Mintal finished a run down the right by Ivan Saenko for the equalizer and scored the winner by completing a similar sweeping move by Nuremberg on the right with another left-footed effort.
"We always fight until the very last minute and now we have a good chance of going through," Mintal said.
Everton improved to nine points, followed by Zenit with five. AZ and FC Nuremberg have four each with Larissa on zero. All but Zenit have one game to play.
Atletico Madrid have joined Panathinaikos in advancing from Group B with a 2-0 victory at FC Copenhagen.
Simao Sabrosa put Atletico ahead in the 21st minute after exchanging passes with Sergio Aguero, who added Atletico's insurance in the 62nd minute.
Panathinaikos won their third straight without conceding a goal by winning 2-0 over Lokomotiv Moscow, who were eliminated. Dimitrios Salpigidis scored in the 70th minutes and 74th minute for Panathinaikos.
Salpingidis, who replaced Dame Ndoye in the 63rd minute, put Panathinaikos ahead with a shot off a pass from Alexis Tziolis. Four minutes later, he headed in a lob from Lucas Vyntra.
The last spot from Group B will either be FC Copenhagen or Aberdeen, who face off on Dec. 20 in Scotland.
Jon Dahl Tomasson scored twice to lead Villarreal past Elfsborg 2-0 and send the Spanish side through from Group C. He turned in a low cross from Nihat Kahveci in the second minute and doubled the score in the 51st minute.
AEK Athens beat Mlada Boleslav 1-0 with a 46th minute goal from Tamandani Nsaliwa to keep their qualifying chances alive.
Villarreal improved to seven points, two more than both AEK and Fiorentina. Mlada have three and Elfsborg one.
Hamburg scored twice in the final minutes to beat Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 in Group D. Nigel de Jong headed in a free kick from Rafael van der Vaart in the 88th minute and Piotr Trochowski sealed the win from the penalty spot in injury time.
FC Basel joined Hamburg in advancing from Group D with a 1-0 win over SK Brann.
Carlos Alberto Carlitos converted a free kick for Basel in the 40th minute.
Brann, Dinamo Zagreb and Rennes are in contention for the last qualifying berth from Group D.
Helsingborg are the only other team to have advanced and they were scheduled to play at Bordeaux late yesterday.
The top three clubs in each of the eight UEFA Cup groups will advance to the next round. Those 24 clubs will be joined by the eight clubs that finish third in their UEFA European Champions League groups.
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