Off the mark... AEK's Burns in action against Sturm Graz (AAP)
Australia's Nathan Burns scored in AEK's Europa League win
over Sturm Graz but it was the exit of Paris-Saint Germain that was the
big talking point of the day.
In Group L of the Europa League, already-eliminated AEK Athens earned its first
points of the group stage with a 3-1 win over Sturm Graz in Austria.
Kostas Manolas, Burns and Viktor Klonaridis scored for the Greek outfit.
Anderlecht rounded off a 100% group stage record with a 5-3 win over Lokomotiv Moscow, who had also already done enough to guarantee the runner-up spot.Sacha Kljestan, Fernando Canesin, Marcin Wasilewski, Matias Suarez and Guillaume Gillet got on the scoresheet for the Belgians, while Dmitri Sychev scored twice for Lokomotiv, who had Andrey Ivanov sent off late on.
The Austrian side needed to at least match PSG's result away to Slovan Bratislava, but all seemed lost when a pair of
Jantscher's spot-kick gave
PSG had given itself the best possible chance of sneaking second place after it also came from behind to claim an exciting 4-2 win over Athletic Bilbao, who was already confirmed as Group F winner.
Jon Aurtenetxe's early goal for Bilbao was quickly cancelled out by
Lazio beat Group D winner Sporting 2-0 in
Victory for Romanian minnow Vaslui at FC Zurich would have taken it through at the Italian sides' expense, but it fell 2-0 to second-half goals from
That left the way clear for Lazio to wrap up a relatively straightforward win over Sporting at the Stadio Olimpico.
Besiktas came from behind at half-time to beat a 10-man Stoke side 3-1 in
Stoke led through
Besiktas' recovery shattered Dynamo Kiev's faint hopes and the Ukrainian outfit finished with nine men as it ended the campaign with a 3-3 home draw against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Dynamo led 2-0 through a Shiran Yeini own goal and
Martin Jol's Fulham was left stunned by Djiby Fall's equaliser deep into added time which knocked the London team out and handed Wisla Krakow an unexpected lifeline.
Goals from Clint Dempsey and Kerim Frei had Fulham cruising to the win it needed to secure qualification inside the first half-hour against already-eliminated Odense.
But the visitor reduced the deficit through Hans Henrik Andreasen and grabbed a 2-2 draw with the last move of the match when Fall headed home a cross from the right by Espen Ruud.
Fall's goal proved enough for Wisla Krakow, whose 2-1 win over Group K
winner FC Twente shunted it up to second.
Lukas Gargula opened the scoring and after Luuk de Jong's stunning overhead kick equaliser, Tzvetan Genkov grabbed the crucial winner.
A late brace from Stefan Nikolic helped former European champion Steaua Bucharest snatch second place in Group J after Maccabi Haifa was beaten by group winner Schalke.
The Israeli side started the night knowing victory would be enough to take it into the knockout stage, but Ciprian Marica, Andreas Wiegel and a Jurica Buljat own goal gave Schalke a 3-0 win.
Romania's Steaua Bucharest kept its nerve to claim a 3-1 win over AEK Larnaca. Raul Rusescu's penalty opener was cancelled out by Gorka Pintado on the hour, but Nikolic struck in the 70th and 85th minutes to seal victory for the home side.
Sterjovski eyes a move to Western Sydney
Former Socceroos midfielder Mile Sterjovski has emerged as one of a trio of likely signings for the A-League's new Western Sydney team.
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