In the Europa League on Matchday Four, Liverpool lost in Toulouse, Brighton won at Ajax, West Ham saw off Olympiakos and Rangers edged Sparta Prague; in the Europa Conference League, Aberdeen drew with PAOK Salonika and Aston Villa got past AZ Alkmaar
Thursday 30 November 2023 06:09, UK
The state of play, tables, results and schedule ahead of Matchday Five in the Europa League and Europa Conference League.
In the Champions League, winning the group is regarded as important to secure a home match in the second leg of the round of 16. In the Europa League, finishing in first place ensures a team skips a round of games.
The eight group winners earn a direct place in the last 16 of the competition whereas finishing in second place only gets a team a playoff match against the clubs who drop into the Europa League as third-place finishers in Champions League groups.
This season, that could easily be the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United or Newcastle.
Liverpool - the top team in the competition at this stage - could qualify as group winner by beating LASK at home, while Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta will seal first place in their group with wins over Hacken and Sporting, respectively.
Lucas Paqueta struck the winner for West Ham but only after the VAR intervened to earn a crucial 1-0 victory over Olympiakos in the Europa League.
David Moyes' side need just a point from their last two matches against Backa Topola and Freiburg to finish at least second in Group A, and four to guarantee top spot.
It's all to play for in Group B. A goal in each half from Ansu Fati and Simon Adingra meant Brighton beat Ajax 2-0 at Johan Cruyff Arena to move into the qualification spots for the first time on their debut European campaign.
The Seagulls' first away win in Europe cements their position in the group ahead of their final two games, away to AEK Athens and at home to Marseille.
Rangers moved clear into second place in Europa League Group C with what turned out to be a nervy 2-1 win over Sparta Prague at Ibrox.
Real Betis have nine points, Rangers have seven, Sparta Prague have four and Aris Limassol just three.
Rangers host Aris Limassol later in the month before concluding their campaign next month with a trip to Spain to face Real Betis and there is plenty still at stake.
Liverpool's defeat in Toulouse ended a three-match winning run and although they remain top of the group their advantage has been cut to two points.
Jurgen Klopp's men also missed out on guaranteeing top spot early and therefore also skipping the additional play-off round in the knockout phase after LASK's victory over Union Saint-Gilloise meant victory would have given them an unassailable lead.
The consequences of that are if Toulouse win their next game against Union the race to top the group will go down to the final round, and with Liverpool's trip to Belgium coming immediately before the Premier League visit of arch-rivals Manchester United Klopp would have been hoping that fixture was a dead rubber to allow him to rest players.
In Group F, table-toppers Rennes beat Panathinaikos 3-1 at home despite having Jeanuel Belocian sent off in the first half.
Villarreal replaced the Greeks in second after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Maccabi Haifa thanks to late goals from Alex Baena and former Crystal Palace forward Alexander Sorloth.
Roma lost 2-0 at Slavia Prague courtesy of second-half goals from Vaclav Jurecka and Lukas Masopust, a result that sees the Czech side usurp their opponents at the top of Group G on goal difference.
Bayer Leverkusen are yet to drop a point in Group H following their 1-0 win at Qarabag.
In the Conference League, Aberdeen drew 2-2 at PAOK but their hopes of making it out of Group G are over.
Jamie McGrath equalised for the Dons with a superb 70th-minute free-kick, after the hosts had replied with two goals to Luis 'Duk' Lopes' opener.
While it was Aberdeen's second point, PAOK moved to 10 points, while Eintracht Frankfurt's 1-0 win over HJK Helsinki took the Germans to nine points after four games.
Aston Villa came from behind to beat AZ Alkmaar 2-1 at Villa Park and all but secure qualification to the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League.
Unai Emery's side remain second in Group E following Legia Warsaw's victory but there is now a six-point gap to third. The Polish side come to Villa Park next with the prize of winning the group and securing a route straight to the round of 16 on the line.
