Europa League Round-Up: Marseille, Celtic, Sociedad, and Sparta All Out!

Which teams go through to the Last 16 and which fail to progress, after the penultimate round of Europa League group fixtures?

Galatasaray qualified for the UEFA Europa League knockout stages with a thrilling 4-2 home win over Marseille on Thursday, which eliminates the Ligue 1 side from Europe’s second-tier competition.

Encouraged by a passionate home crowd, the Istanbul club earned a 12th-minute lead, as Alexandru Cicâldău drilled in a shot from 15 metres before Duje Ćaleta-Car fired the Romanian’s low cross into his own net.

Sofiane Feghouli made it 3-0 with a close-range finish before Arkadiusz Milik pulled one back when he netted on the rebound after Fernando Muslera could only parry the Polish striker’s penalty.

Ryan Babel netted Galatasaray’s fourth with a superb strike and Milik’s late header wasn’t much of a consolation for Marseille.

Lazio join the Turkish side as qualifiers from Group E after a brace of Ciro Immobile penalties helped the Serie A club to a 3-0 win at Lokomotiv Moscow. Meanwhile, Bayer Leverkusen advance from Group G after a pulsating 3-2 home victory over Celtic, who exit the competition.

Elsewhere, Leicester City beat Legia Warsaw 3-1 on Thursday to rocket from bottom to top of Group C and keep their dreams of reaching the knockout stages alive.

The Premier League outfit have eight points from five games, one more than Spartak Moscow and Napoli and two ahead of Legia, with all four teams still in contention to advance, ahead of the last round of matches.

Zambian forward, Patson Daka, put Leicester ahead in the 10th minute with a calm finish and James Maddison made it 2-0 with a superb shot on the turn before Filip Mladenović pulled one back for the team from Poland’s capital.

Mladenović stroked home a rebound after Kasper Schmeichel saved Mahir Emreli’s penalty, but Wilfred Ndidi, who conceded the spot-kick, made up for it with an incredible headed goal from Maddison’s corner in the 33rd minute.

Rangers advance to the knockout stages from Group A with a match to spare, after Alfredo Morelos scored a double to earn a 2-0 home win over Sparta Prague, as they join runaway group leaders, Lyon, in the knockout stages.

The Colombian hitman opened the scoring on a quarter of an hour and added the second in the 49th minute, with a nodded finish into an empty net, as he intercepted a naive pass by Sparta defender, Filip Panák.

Lyon stay top after two goals from Rayan Cherki and another by Islam Slimani gave them a 3-1 win at Danish side, Brøndby.

Monaco advance from Group B with a 2-1 home victory over Real Sociedad, as goals from Kevin Volland and Youssouf Fofana, cancelled out Alexander Isak’s effort for the visitors.

Attentions now turn to the final round of fixtures, on December the 9th!