TEAMtalk : Salzburg clinched a place in the knockout stages of the Europa League on Wednesday at the expense of Paris St Germain.
The Austrians needed to at least match PSG’s result away to Slovan Bratislava, but all seemed lost when a pair of Milos Lacny goals inside the first six minutes in Slovakia left them reeling.
Jakob Jantscher’s spot-kick gave Ricardo Moniz’s men hope and Brazilian Leonardo struck the equaliser five minutes later. A 52nd-minute own goal from Marian Had completed Salzburg’s comeback.
PSG had given themselves the best possible chance of sneaking second place after they also came from behind to claim an exciting 4-2 win over Athletic Bilbao, who were already confirmed as Group F winners.
Jon Aurtenetxe’s early goal for Athletic was quickly cancelled out by Javier Pastore and Mathieu Bodmer, and despite a leveller from David Lopez, the French side secured victory late on with an Inigo Perez own goal and a penalty from Guillaume Hoarau.
Lazio beat Group D winners Sporting Lisbon 2-0 in Rome but were left to anxiously await news from Switzerland before confirming their place in the knockout stages behind the Portuguese side.
Victory for Romanian minnows Vaslui at FC Zurich would have taken them through at the Italians’ expense, but they fell 2-0 to second-half goals from Xavier Margairaz and Oliver Buff for the already-eliminated Swiss side.
That left the way clear for Lazio to wrap up a relatively straightforward 2-0 win over Sporting at the Stadio Olimpico. Libor Kozak scored just before half-time and Giuseppe Sculli added the second early in the second half.
Besiktas came from behind at half-time to pip 10-man Stoke 3-1 in Istanbul and secure first place in Group E with Tony Pulis’ men forced to accept qualification as runners-up.