Man Utd, Tottenham and Rangers into Europa League last 16

LONDON – Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur were joined by Rangers as three British clubs secured their spots in the Europa League last-16 on the final round of group games on Thursday.

United, who like Tottenham have endured a disappointing Premier League season, won 2-0 at Steaua Bucharest to continue their recent upturn in form.

Second-half goals by Diogo Dalot and Kobbie Mainoo silenced a raucous home crowd as United finished third in the table behind Lazio and Athletic Bilbao.

"When you get to this stage of any competition, anything is possible and they can prove they can win against anybody," United manager Ruben Amorim said.

Tottenham eased to a 3-0 victory over Swedish side Elfsborg with youngsters Dane Scarlett, Damola Ajayi and Mikey Moore all netting their first goals for the club.

The victory saw Spurs finish fourth, although their joy was dampened slightly by an injury to defender Radu Dragusin.

"I'm sure those boys won't sleep tonight, but we needed that. We needed some energy – we kind of designed the game today, we're trying to protect some of our players, we've got a big week coming up, and we were going to need the young boys today, and they stood up," under-pressure manager Ange Postecoglou said.

Rangers began the evening outside the top eight but a 2-1 home victory against Belgians Union Saint-Gilloise and results elsewhere enabled them to jump into eighth place and avoid having to enter the knockout phase play-offs.

Nico Raskin headed the opening goal and Vaclav Cerny slotted a second for Rangers.

Lazio finished top of the rankings although they suffered a 1-0 defeat at Braga. Ricardo Horta's sixth-minute goal proved enough for the Portuguese side although they bowed out after finishing 25th in the league.

Second-placed Athletic Bilbao beat Viktoria Plzen 3-1 with Nico Williams, Yeray Alvarez and Javier Marton on target.

AS Roma secured their place in the playoffs with a 2-0 home win over German side Eintracht Frankfurt who still reached the last-16 automatically by coming fifth.

Goals from Angelino and Eldor Shomurodov made sure Roma finished in 15th spot.

Olympique Lyonnais secured direct entry to the last 16 despite a lacklustre 1-1 home draw against already-eliminated Ludogorets.

Corentin Tolisso opened the scoring early in the second half after benefiting from a defensive blunder before Dinis Almeida levelled with 13 minutes left.

Greek side Olympiacos finished seventh to go directly to the last 16 after a resounding 3-0 win over Qarabag.

Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce scraped into the play-offs in 24th position with a 2-2 draw at Midtjylland proving just enough as other results went in their favour.

Former European champions Porto also flirted with elimination but a 1-0 win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv courtesy of a Nico Gonzalez goal helped them to 18th place and play-off.

Reuters