The Europa League signed off for Christmas with Thursday’s latest round of games.
Here’s what went down:
All-square in ‘Battle of Britain’ ends all-square
Scorers: Igamane 47′; Kulusevski 75′
Tottenham held Rangers to a 1-1 draw in the latest ‘Battle of Britain’
Just two minutes after the restart, Hamza Igamane opened the scoring by drilling home James Tavernier’s deep cross that saw Fraser Forster comfortably beaten.
Ange Postecoglou’s side produced an equaliser in the final 15 minutes when Dejan Kulusevski swept in a loose ball inside the area to restore parity for the visitors.
But the Gers continued to press with Cyriel Dessers drawing a sublime save from Forster before seeing a potential winner disallowed for offside barely a minute later.
Lazio outclass Ajax
Scorers: Traoré 47′; Tchaouna 12′, Dele-Bashiru 52′, Pedro 77′
Lazio turned on the style to put Ajax to the sword in a 3-1 win.
Loum Tchaouna opened the scoring for the visitors with a drilled finish after being sent clear by Pedro after the opening 12 minutes at the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
Francesco Farioli’s side struck back early in the second half through Bertrand Traoré’s rifled strike from the edge of the penalty area after a recycled corner.
But the Aquile cancelled out the winger’s leveller in the space of five minutes as Fisayo Dele-Bashiru fired home despite Remko Pasveer’s attempt to clear his lines.
Things went from bad to worse for the Eredivisie giants as Pedro later unleashed a sublime dipping strike from outside the box to open up a two-goal cushion.
Højlund spares Man Utd’s blushes
Scorers: Vydra 48′; Højlund 62′, 88′
Manchester United produced a late smash-and-grab to seal a 2-1 win over Viktoria Plzeň
Matěj Vydra punished Ruben Amorim’s side just three minutes into the second half after Pavel Šulc capitalised on André Onana’s weak pass out to Matthijs de Ligt.
But Rasmus Højlund was able to spare the visitors’ blushes when he turned the ball home from Amad Diallo’s cutback shortly after the hour mark for their leveller.
With two minutes of normal time remaining, the Denmark international delivered a winner by volleying low after meeting Bruno Fernandes’ well-worked free kick.
Højlund’s brace saw the Red Devils shoot up the Europa League standings into fifth while their hosts sit 15th in the current standings after nine points from six games.
Roma stay unbeaten
Scorers: Pellegrini 10′, Abdulhamid 47′, Hermoso 90+1′
Sent off: Matheus
Roma racked up a fourth Europa game unbeaten with a 3-0 win over Braga.
Lorenzo Pellegrini put Claudio Ranieri’s side ahead in the opening 10 minutes with a sweeping strike after being teed up by Nicola Zalewski on the edge of the box.
The Giallorossi doubled their tally early in the second half when Saud Abdulhamid ran onto Manu Koné’s clever pass to rifle the ball past Matheus at his near post.
Matheus was later dismissed with a straight red card for handling the ball outside his area when attempting to stop Abdulhamid as he bore down on goal again.
A third goal followed for the hosts in added time as Mario Hermoso pounced after Evan Ndicka’s initial shot was parried by Matheus’ replacement Lukáš Horníček.
Ranieri’s side now sit a point outside the automatic qualification spots in 12th while Braga find themselves at the lower end of the outside bracket in 22nd.
Other results
Hoffenheim 0-0 FCSB
Ludogorets 2-2 AZ Alkmaar
Malmö 2-2 Galatasaray
Olympiacos 0-0 FC Twente
PAOK 5-0 Ferencváros
Union St Gilloise 2-1 Nice
Bodø/Glimt 2-1 Beşiktaş
Porto 2-1 Midtjylland
Elfsborg 1-0 Qarabag
Maccabi Tel-Aviv 2-1 RFS
Lyon 3-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Real Sociedad 3-0 Dynamo Kyiv
Slavia Prague 1-2 Anderlecht
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