Smalling’s Roma through to last 16

Chris Smalling and Gianluca Mancini celebrate after Roma progress

Roma reached the last 16 of the Europa League, while German sides Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg also booked their places after Thursday’s early action.

Roma, 1-0 winners against Gent in the first leg, looked in danger when Jonathan David levelled the tie on aggregate after 25 minutes but Justin Kluivert eased the Serie A side’s nerves with a quick equaliser that earned a 2-1 overall victory.

Leverkusen blew Porto away with a 3-1 away win to triumph 5-2 on aggregate.

Lucas Alario, Kerem Demirbay and Kai Havertz scored to seal a comfortable second-leg victory, before Moussa Marega grabbed a consolation for the home side.

Another Bundelsliga side, Vfl Wolfsburg, saw off Swedish side Malmo 3-0 away – Josip Brekalo, Yannick Gerhardt
and Joao Victor on target – to breeze through 5-1 on aggregate.

FC Basel also sailed through with a 1-0 home win over APOEL Nicosia courtesy of Fabian Frei’s penalty that secured a 4-0 aggregate victory against the Cypriots.

Elsewhere, Sporting exited after losing 4-1 at Istanbul Basaksehir after extra time to go down 5-4 on aggregate after Edin Visca gave the hosts a lifeline with a late goal in normal time and then scored a penalty to take them through to the last 16.

LASK Linz upset visiting Dutch side AZ Alkmaar 2-0 with a Marko Raguz double which gave the Austrians a 3-1 aggregate success.

British sides book last-16 places

Adama Traore celebrates scoring for Wolves against Espanyol

Wolves took a 4-0 advantage to Espanyol and despite a last-gasp 3-2 defeat in Spain, that first-leg damage proved decisive.

Adama Traore scrambled in a close-range effort and Matt Doherty also scored as Wolves twice cancelled out goals by Jonathan Calleri, who got a hat-trick in a 3-2 home win that restored some pride for the La Liga side.

Rangers had become the first side through when they edged Braga 1-0 on Wednesday to seal a 4-2 aggregate victory.

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