SPORTS

Europa League: PSV, Roma reach last 32

December 04, 2009 10:57 IST

An injury-time strike by Jonathan Reis sent PSV Eindhoven into the Europa League knockout rounds with a 1-0 home win over Sparta Prague on Thursday.

Sporting also left it late to seal their passage and finish top of Group D with substitute Leandro Grimi netting a minute into stoppage time in a 1-1 home draw with Heerenveen.

Second-placed Hertha Berlin, struggling domestically as they prop up the Bundesliga, are two points above Heerenveen after a 1-0 win at Latvia's FK Ventspils.

Athletic Bilbao also went through to the last 32 after a 3-0 triumph at Austria Vienna in Group L while FC Copenhagen and Toulouse revived their hopes of qualifying.

AS Roma qualified from Group E by recovering to beat Basel 2-1 with a Francesco Totti penalty and Mirko Vucinic strike while Fulham remain alive after a 1-0 home win over CSKA Sofia.

Roy Hodgson's Premier League outfit visit Basel in the final group match needing a win to go through at the Swiss side's expense.

Panathinaikos wasted an opportunity to progress with a game to spare when they lost 1-0 at already-qualified Galatasaray, leaving Dinamo Bucharest with a chance of sneaking through.

The Romanians won 2-1 against eliminated visitors Sturm Graz in Group F and must now beat Panathinaikos in Athens in two weeks by at least two goals.

LLORENTE DOUBLE

Fernando Llorente opened the scoring for Bilbao after 19 minutes and goals from Mikel San Jose and Llorente again after the break secured victory and the second qualifying spot in Group L with leaders Werder Bremen already through.

Copenhagen can snatch qualification in the final Group K game in Prague in two weeks after a 2-0 home win over CFR Cluj ended the visitors' campaign and meant the Danes moved onto seven points with PSV through on 11 and Sparta stuck on seven.

Toulouse beat eliminated Partizan Belgrade 1-0 in France thanks to Daniel Braaten's 54th minute goal to surge within a point of second-placed Club Bruges in Group J, after the Belgians drew 0-0 at already-qualified Shakhtar Donetsk.

Shakhtar progressed after the fourth round of matches last month along with Group F winners Galatasaray and Bremen, who lost to Shakhtar in the last UEFA Cup final earlier this year.

The German side beat Nacional Madeira 4-1 on Thursday to reach 13 points.

Ajax Amsterdam, Salzburg, Benfica, Everton, Fenerbahce, Villarreal, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hamburg SV went through to February's last 32 matches on Wednesday.

The top two from the 12 groups qualify for the knockout stages where the third-placed teams from the eight Champions League groups will also feature.

Source: REUTERS
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