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LIVERPOOL, England. — Liverpool eased into the Europa League round of 16 with a 4-0 home win over Austria’s LASK in Group E and Olympique de Marseille secured a top-two finish in Group B after a thrilling 4-3 win over Ajax Amsterdam on Thursday.
Premier League Liverpool moved on to 12 points and will top the standings after second-placed Toulouse were held to a goalless draw at home by Union Saint Gilloise.
Luis Diaz put Liverpool ahead after 12 minutes with a header from Joe Gomez’s cross and Cody Gapko’s tap-in doubled the lead three minutes later.
Mohamed Salah’s penalty made it 3-0 early in the second half and Gapko added his second in stoppage time to complete the rout.
By sealing top spot in Group E with a game to spare, the Premier League club will now avoid having to go through a playoff round in February to reach the last 16.
“We are now top of the table and that will not change,” Klopp told reporters. “That’s good, very important in the busy, busy, busy schedule we have from now on.”
Klopp said there were a lot of positives to take from the win, the only negative being they did not finish the game off sooner.
“Performance really good, nobody got injured. All good,” he added.
Liverpool next host Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday, followed by visits to Sheffield United and Crystal Palace. They conclude their Europa League group stage campaign with a trip to Union Saint-Gilloise on Dec. 14.
While the Europa League is one step down from Europe’s elite club competition, the Champions League, Klopp said Liverpool were determined to go as far as possible in the competition.
“Unfortunately, my career is not like this where I can choose, to be honest. I have to take what I get,” he added.
“When we play the competition it’s the most important competition on the planet. Easy as that. But now we play Premier League on Sunday and so that is then the most important competition, definitely.”
Marseille advanced from the group stage with victory over 10-man Ajax thanks to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s hat-trick completed late in stoppage time.
Ajax had levelled three times, Brian Brobbey scoring twice, but they had Steven Berghuis sent off in the second half following a challenge on Joaquin Correa.
Villarreal also progressed to the knock-out stages with a 3-2 win Panathinaikos in Group F after the Greek side fought back from 3-0 down.
Rangers drew 1-1 with Aris Limassol and the Scottish team remained in contention for a top-two spot in Group C with seven points, one ahead of Sparta Prague who beat leaders Real Betis 1-0.
Bayern Leverkusen confirmed their place in the round of 16 as Group H winners with a 2-0 win over BK Hacken. Qarabag and Molde are still looking to secure a playoff place as runners-up after their 2-2 draw.
Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku scored for AS Roma but they failed to secure victory over Servette as Chris Bedia equalised for the Swiss side in a 1-1 draw in Group G.
Slavia Prague made notable progress towards claiming top spot in the group with a 3-2 win over Sheriff thanks to Muhamed Tijani’s stoppage-time penalty.
Roma and Slavia Prague will finish in the top two places in the group but Slavia have a two-point advantage heading into the final group games. — Reuters.
Online Reporter