UEFA Europa League and Conference League scores: Leicester City drop into UECL knockout play-offs

The group stage is essentially in the books for all of the three big European competitions

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All three European club competitions virtually wrapped up group stage play on Thursday. We say virtually because Tottenham's match with Rennes has been postponed due to a COVID outbreak at Spurs. When played, that match will determine if Tottenham or Vitesse move into the preliminary knockout round. In the Europa League, there's only 24 teams remaining ahead of Monday's 7 a.m. ET draw on Paramount+ and CBS Sports HQ.

Champions League results

Before wrap up the final day of UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League group stage matches, Atalanta and Villarreal made up their UEFA Champions League that was snowed out the previous day in Bergamo, with Unai Emery's Yellow Submarine emerging victorious, 3-2, and punching a ticket to the UCL knockout stage and dumping the Italian side to UEL.

It was eventful match saw five goals scored between the two sides, beginning with Arnaut Danjuma opening the scoring after nicking the ball from Merih Demiral. Danjuma capitalized off a turnover to keep his hot streak of going. It did not take long before Etienne Capoue doubled Villarreal's lead in the 42nd minute with a finish from a tight angle. Danjuma scored his second -- he finished group play with four goals in six matches -- to put things out of sight in the 51st minute as Atalanta seemed to have lost their fire due to the snow. 

The Italian side would make interesting with finishes from from Ruslan Malinovsky in the 71st and Duvan Zapata in the 80th, but it proved to be too little, too late as they were relegated to Europa League.

Group F
Atalanta 2, Villarreal 3

Europa League results

Moving to the Europa League where a lot was decided prior to Thursday's matches. Sparta Praha took down Brondby, 2-0, in a match that saw both sides pick up red cards. Goals came from Adam Hlozek and David Hancko while Sparta Praha were unlucky not to score more. Lyon and Rangers played to a 1-1 draw with the Scottish side finding the net for both teams -- an own goal from defender Calvin Bassey and a goal from Scott Wright. The results will see Lyon finish first in the group followed by Rangers.

With Group B already wrapped up, a youthful Monaco side settled for a 1-1 draw with Sturm Graz. A Strahinja Pavlovic handball gave Sturm a penalty that Jakob Jantscher converted. Monaco got one back via Kevin Volland in the 30th minute before both teams took their feet off of the gas. Real Sociedad took the second spot in the group following an impressive victory over a PSV side that finished with 10 men. A brace from Mikel Oyarzabal and a finishing goal from Alexander Sorloth was enough to see them through as PSV just simply didn't show up.

Group C gave us the most exciting match of the night as Napoli defeated Leicester, 3-2, in a tightly-contested affair that went down to the wire in Naples. A double from Eljif Elmas canceled out set play goals from Jonny Evans and 23-year-old Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who scored his first-ever goal in Europe. A fourth-minute goal from Adam Onas proved to be the difference as Leicester's defensive struggles continue. This result relegated the Foxes into the Conference League knockout play-offs and allowed Spartak Moskow to win the group following a victory over Legia Warsaw. A 17th-minute goal from Zelimkhan Bakaev was enough to do the trick as Leiga missed their chance when Tomas Pekhart missed a penalty.

In a meaningless match, Antwerp defeated Olympiacos as the Greek side will still advance from Group D as runners-up. Group D winners Eintracht Frankfurt settled for a 1-1 draw with Fenerbahce behind a goal from Djibril Sow in the 29th minute. Mergiam Berisha equalized in the 42nd minute but it wouldn't be enough for the Turkish Yellow Canaries.

Only one goal was scored between all four teams in Group E as a tidy header from Arkadiusz Milik sealed a 1-0 win for Marseille over Lokomotiv Moscow, which featured a Valentin Rongier red card. The win wasn't enough to send them through to the knockout stages as they'll instead play Conference League ball. Galatasaray and Lazio played to a scoreless draw and wound up occupying the top two spots of the group.

It was a missed opportunity for Midtjylland, who finished outside the top two in Group F and could have won the group had they broken through in their scoreless draw to Ludogorets Razgrad. Red Star instead win the group and Braga finish as the runners-up. 

Group G did not have much at stake entering Thursday, as Bayer Leverkusen lost to Ferencvaros but still won the group. Real Betis finished second after a 3-2 loss to Celtic that saw four goals scored in nine minutes after none were scored in 66 minutes following Stephen Welsh's opener.

West Ham conceded their first goal of Europa League play during Thursday's 1-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb while Genk lost to Rapid Wein after conceding a goal to a great counterattack. With the results, West Ham won the group while Dinamo Zagreb did just enough to finish second and move on to knockouts.

Group A
Sparta Praha 2, Brondby 0
Lyon 1, Rangers 1

Group B
Sturm 1, Monaco 1
Real Sociedad 3, PSV 0

Group C
Legia 0, Spartak Moscow 1
Napoli 3, Leicester 2

Group D
Antwerp 1, Olympiacos 0
Fenerbahce 1, Frankfurt 1

Group E 
Marseille 1, Lokomotiv Moscow 0
Lazio 0, Galatasaray 0

Group F
Braga 1, Red Star Belgrade 1
Ludogorets 1, Midtjylland 0

Group G
Ferencvaros 1, Leverkusen 0
Celtic 3, Betis 2

Group H
West Ham 0, Dinamo Zagreb 1
Genk 0, Rapid Wien 1

Europa Conference League results

In Europa Conference League, the group winners will go right to the round of 16 while runners-up go into a preliminary knockout round.   

Group A
LASK 3, HJK 0
Alashkert 1, Maccabi Tel Aviv 1

Group B
Gent 1, Flora 0
Partizan 1, Anorthosis 1

Group C
CSKA-Sofia 2, Roma 3
Zorya Luhansk 1, Bodo/Glimt 1

Group D
CFR Cluj 2, Jablonec 0
AZ Alkmaar 1, Randers 0

Group E
Union Berlin 1, Slavia Praha 1
Feyenoord 2, Maccabi Haifa 1

Group F
Copenhagen 2,  Slovan Bratislava 0
PAOK 2, Lincoln Red Imps 0

Group G
Vitesse 3, Mura 1
Tottenham vs. Rennes -- POSTPONED

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Before you could blink, Betis equalized and that's three goals scored in five minutes for the two sides.

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One touch, one goal!

Ewan Henderson wasn't even on the pitch for a minute before putting Celtic back ahead versus Real Betis!

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Red Star are awarded a penalty and Alexsander Katai doesn't miss even as the keeper gets a hand to it. With that, Red Star goes top of Group F again.

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Braga goes ahead!

With that penalty, Braga is top of Group F as things stand. Can Red Star fight back or will Midtjylland go ahead to pass them?

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December 9, 2021, 9:15 PM
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