Europa League roundup: What happened on Matchday 4?

The late slate of Europa League fixtures solved little in terms of progression to the last 32.

However, in the early kickoffs, Sevilla secured their passage into the knockout stage with one of the most lopsided victories of the day. Meanwhile, Celtic walked away with a massive victory to book their ticket to the next round, as the Scottish side beat Lazio 2-1 in Italy on Thursday.

Here’s the full slate of results from Matchday 4 in Europa League play:

Late kickoffs

Group G

Young Boys and Rangers share top billing on seven points after the latter beat Porto 2-0 in Scotland. Dick Advocaat’s Feyenoord are joint-third on four points with the Portuguese giants following a 1-1 draw with the Swiss side in Rotterdam.

Group H

Espanyol have one foot in the next round thanks to a commanding 6-0 home win over nine-man Ludogorets. Ferencvaros are now a point back of the second-place Bulgarians after drawing 0-0 with CSKA Moscow. The Russians are in a tough spot with one point through four matches.

Group I

Belgians Gent moved top with a 3-1 victory at Wolfsburg, while Saint-Etienne are stuck on three points after conceding twice in the final six minutes against Oleksandriya in a 2-1 loss in Ukraine.

Group J

Thanks to three goals in the final 15 minutes, Istanbul Basaksehir outclassed Wolfsberger 3-0 in Austria to snatch top spot in the group. Marcus Thuram scored in the 94th minute to guide Borussia Monchengladbach past Roma 2-1 as all four sides remain separated by a mere three points.

Group K

SC Braga have plenty to boast about after beating 10-man Besiktas 2-1 in north Portugal to stay top on 10 points. Wolves sit second after Raul Jimenez’s injury-time winner against Slovan Bratislava. With four defeats from four, Turkish giants Besiktas have collected more air miles than points.

Group L

Manchester United beat Partizan Belgrade 3-0 and AZ Alkmaar won 5-0 at Astana to maintain first and second spot in the group on 10 and eight points, respectively. The Red Devils haven’t tasted defeat in 15 straight Europa League matches, the longest of any current team in the competition.

Earlier in the day

Group A

Sevilla’s hopes of adding to record haul of five Europa League titles took a step in the right direction, as the Spanish side eased into the next phase of the competition with a 5-2 victory over Dudelange. Second-place Qarabag squandered a chance of joining them by falling to APOEL Nicosia.

Group B

FC Copenhagen failed to pull away from the pack after giving up a late equalizer in their 1-1 draw with Dynamo Kyiv, while Malmo scuppered their chance to climb into the top two of Group B with a disappointing away draw against basement-dwellers Lugano.

Group C

Basel padded their lead atop Group C with a 2-1 victory over a Getafe side that’s level on points with second-place Krasnodar. A win on matchday 5 against Krasnodar will result in the Swiss club’s passage to the round of 32.

Group D

It’s anyone’s guess as to who will progress to the knockout phase from Group D. Sporting CP lead the group with nine points after beating Rosenborg, while PSV were humiliated after their 4-1 loss to LASK.

Group E

Celtic are off to the round of 32 after upsetting Lazio in Rome on Thursday. James Forrest canceled out Ciro Immobile’s goal before Olivier Ntcham scored in injury time to send the visiting supporters into a frenzy. Lazio now sit six points behind second-place CFR Cluj with two matches left.

Group F

Arsenal were minutes away from securing a place in the knockouts during a rare Wednesday afternoon contest in Portugal. No such luck as Vitoria snatched a win after Bruno Duarte’s acrobatic equalizer in injury time. Standard Liege drew level with Eintracht Frankfurt in the group by beating the German side 2-1 at home.