Aston Villa on Thursday extended their winning streak to eight games in all competitions with a 2-1 victory against Basel in the UEFA Europa League to secure at least a playoff spot.
Villa were tied with Olympique Lyonnais, who beat Go Ahead Eagles 2-1, and Midtjylland, 1-0 winners over Genk, atop the standings of the second-tier European competition on 15 points with five wins from six games.
They have bounced back from a poor start to the season and are third in the Premier League, including a 2-1 victory over leaders Arsenal on Saturday.
Photo: AFP
At St Jakob-Park in Basel, summer signing Evann Guessand put Villa 1-0 ahead early following a corner-kick before Flavius Daniliuc met Xherdan Shaqiri’s curling free-kick to equalize.
Halftime substitute Youri Tielemans needed just eight minutes to place a shot from 20m into the bottom corner of the net to restore Villa’s lead for good.
After eight rounds of games, the top eight in the 36-team table go directly to the round of 16, which is to begin in March. Teams placed ninth to 24th advance to the knockout playoffs in February.
Photo: Reuters
Elsewhere on Thursday, it was:
‧ Brann 0, Fenerbahce 4
‧ Celta Vigo 1, Bologna 2
Photo: AFP
‧ Celtic 0, AS Roma 3
‧ Dinamo Zagreb, 1 Real Betis 3
‧ FCSB 4, Feyenoord 3
Photo: AP
‧ Ferencvaros 2, Rangers 1
‧ Freiburg 1, Salzburg 0
‧ Ludogorets 3, PAOK 3
‧ Nice 0, Braga 1
‧ Panathinaikos 0, V Plzen 0
‧ Porto 2, Malmo 1
‧ Sturm Graz 0, Belgrade 1
‧ Stuttgart 4, Maccabi Tel Aviv 1
‧ Utrecht 1, N’ham Forest 2
‧ Young Boys 1, Lille 0
Conference League
AFP, PARIS
In-form Crystal Palace on Thursday eased past Shelbourne 3-0 to maintain their chances of an automatic qualifying spot for the round of 16 in the UEFA Conference League.
Christantus Uche, Eddie Nketiah and Yeremy Pino scored in Dublin to send Palace to within a point of eighth-placed FSV Mainz 05, who drew 1-1 with Lech Poznan.
Palace are to end the league phase of their campaign by hosting KuPS on Thursday next week. The Finnish side played out a scoreless draw with Lausanne-Sport.
“Credit to the players and the team for their attitude,” Palace coach Oliver Glasner told TNT Sports. “The pitch wasn’t really in the best condition, playing against a team who wants to show up, and I think we played well in the first half.”
Irish outfit Shelbourne were third from bottom, having earned just one point from five matches.
In another game, a much-changed Strasbourg claimed their last-16 berth with a 1-0 win against Aberdeen.
Elsewhere on Thursday, it was:
‧ Breidablik 3, S’rock Rovers 1
‧ Fiorentina 2, Dynamo Kyiv 1
‧ Jagiellonia 1, Rayo Vallecano 2
‧ Drita 0, AZ Alkmaar 3
‧ Samsunspor 1, AEK Athens 2
‧ Shkendija 2, S’van Bratislava 0
‧ Hacken 1, AEK Larnaca 1
‧ U Craiova 1, Sparta Prague 2
‧ Noah 2, Legia Warsaw 1
‧ Rapid Vienna 0, Omonia 1
‧ Riejka 3, Celje 0
‧ Red Imps 2, Sigma Olomouc 1
‧ Rakow 1, Zrinjski 0
‧ Hamrun 0, Shakhtar Donetsk 2
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