Kemar Roofe’s winner on Thursday sent Rangers into the UEFA Europa League round-of-16 with a 3-2 victory at Real Betis Balompie, while Joao Pedro’s late strike helped Brighton & Hove Albion sink Olympique de Marseille.
Rangers, runners-up in the competition two seasons ago, were heading out of the tournament and into the UEFA Europa Conference League with the game level 12 minutes from time and Sparta Prague on their way to a 3-1 victory at Aris, but after a corner was not cleared twice, Roofe bundled the ball home from close range to fire Rangers from third to first in Group C.
The Scottish giants had twice led in the first half through Abdallah Sima and Cyriel Dessers, but Juan Miranda and Ayoze Perez equalized for Betis.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Rangers held on in a frantic finale to inflict a first home defeat of the season on Betis, who had to settle for a Conference League playoff spot.
“[Playing in Europe] is special, it’s always been special during my time here,” Roofe told TNT Sports.
Brighton avoided a Europa League knockout-round playoff in February with a tense 1-0 home win over Marseille in Group B.
Both teams had already secured top-two finishes, but the Seagulls needed a win to usurp Marseille at the top of the standings.
The English Premier League side struggled to break down their visitors for long periods, but Pedro showed neat footwork in the penalty area before drilling the ball into the top corner in the 88th minute to score his sixth goal in as many Europa League matches this season.
“I lost my voice, I lost everything. It was an amazing game. We played amazing football,” Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi said.
West Ham United made it a clean sweep for British teams, finishing top of their group as Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez scored in a 2-0 win over SC Freiburg, who finished second in Group A.
Earlier, a youthful Liverpool side lost 2-1 at Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in their final group game.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp rang the changes with his team already secure as Group E winners and with an eye on tomorrow’s English Premier League game against rivals Manchester United, starting six players aged 20 or younger.
Saint-Gilloise, who needed a victory to keep alive their hopes of pipping Toulouse to second place, took the lead through Mohamed Amoura before Jarell Quansah hit back for Liverpool.
Cameron Puertas restored the hosts’ advantage two minutes before halftime with a low strike that beat Caoimhin Kelleher at his near post.
Klopp threw on Joe Gomez, Ryan Gravenberch and Darwin Nunez in the second half, but Saint-Gilloise held on for a famous victory, although the Belgians dropped into the Europa Conference League playoff round after Toulouse beat LASK 2-1 in the group’s other game to finish second.
Dani Parejo scored a late winner as Villarreal took top spot in Group F and direct qualification for the round-of-16 with a 3-2 victory at Stade Rennais.
Lorenz Assignon scored in the 12th minute of stoppage-time to seemingly send Rennes back to the group summit, but his goal was ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) and scuffles broke out after the final whistle.
VAR intervened because Enzo Le Fee had collected the ball himself after his own free-kick had struck the woodwork in the buildup.
“I also learned [this rule] at that time to be very honest,” Rennes coach Julien Stephan said. “I knew it was the case from the penalty spot, but I didn’t think it could exist from a free-kick.”
The Ligue 1 club only needed to avoid defeat to finish first, but instead will have to face a team dropping out of the UEFA Champions League in the playoff.
Azeri club Qarabag finished second in Group H courtesy of a 2-1 success against BK Hacken.
They were a distant eight points adrift of group winners Bayer 04 Leverkusen, though, as the Bundesliga leaders extended their unbeaten start to the season to 23 matches in all competitions by thrashing Molde 5-1.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan. Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince. Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet. Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who