Paris (AFP)

Ajax Amsterdam, who beat Lille again, but also Arsenal, Glasgow Rangers and Granada, who took out Naples, qualified Thursday for the knockout stages of the Europa League, in the wake of Tottenham on Wednesday.

The Spurs had logically validated their ticket against the Austrians of Wolfsberg.

Ajax carefully avoided a feat of the Mastiffs, starting by taking the advantage on a free kick taken from the head by Klaassen (15th).

Unhappy finalist of the Europa League 2017, Ajax then neutralized Lille who had promised to fight but are necessarily more concerned at the moment by their place as leader of the French Ligue 1.

The suspense lasted only ten minutes, between an equalizing penalty from Yazici (78th) and the winning goal by Neres (88th).

Another unfortunate finalist (in 2019), Arsenal, qualified Thursday after having drawn on the lawn of Benfica in the first leg (1-1).

It was anything but a walk in the park and Mikael Arteta's Gunners took out heavy artillery to defeat the Portuguese (3-2).

The feat of this early evening came from the Diego Armando-Maradona stadium in Naples, where the courageous Spaniards from Granada managed to preserve their first leg advantage (2-0) in extremis.

They lost 2-1 but will play the round of 16, like several tenors of European football.

Another notable achievement, the Norwegians of Molde went to qualify (2-0) on the lawn of the Germans in Hoffenheim, after an unbridled draw in the first leg (3-3).

And two clubs composted their ticket without forcing too much, Villarreal against RB Salzburg (2-1) and Shakhtar Donetsk against Maccabi Tel-Aviv (1-0).

As in the first leg, an orgy of attacking football was organized by the Glasgow Rangers, with the help of the Belgians from Antwerp: 5-2 for the Scots, or 9-5 in total for the two rounds of this great open house operation. .

Two other English clubs were to play in the second half of the evening: Manchester United, winner in 2017, armed with a solid 4-0 first leg against Real Sociedad, and Leicester, who had secured the 0-0 at Slavia Prague.

Two other Italian clubs were scheduled, AS Roma victorious in the first leg (2-0) among the Portuguese Sporting Braga, and especially AC Milan, returned from Belgrade with a draw (2-2) against the 'Red star, in the duel between former C1 winners.

© 2021 AFP