PSG bounced from Europa League despite win

Paris, France – PSG secured a 4-2 win over Athletic Bilbao at spending French side to claim a place in the knockout round of the Europa League.

The club entered its final Group F match needing a win and a loss or draw by Red Bull Salzburg to advance.

But despite earning all three points against Athletic, Salzburg also secured the maximum points in a 3-2 victory over Slovan Bratislava, sending the Austrian side through at the expense of PSG.

Athletic came into Wednesday's match having already assured itself of the top spot in Group F and named a much-changed side for the game.

And the visitors took the lead after three minutes with Jon Aurtenetxe heading home a corner kick to put the hosts behind early.

PSG responded with goals from Javier Pastore and Mathieu Bodmer before halftime, only for Athletic to equalize 10 minutes into the second half through David Lopez.

Nene was handed a chance to put PSG back in front in the 84th minute but he failed to convert a penalty kick, although an own goal from Inigo Perez one minute later did put the hosts back into the lead.

Guillaume Hoarau converted a spot kick of his own in the 90th minute to kill the game off for PSG, but it was little consolation as Salzburg broke a 2-2 deadlock in the second half of its win courtesy of an own goal from Bratislava's Marian Had.

Group D had already been won by Sporting Lisbon ahead of Wednesday's action and Lazio took advantage by beating the Portuguese side 2-0 to join Sporting in the knockout round. Vaslui entered the day level on points with Lazio but suffered a 2-0 defeat at Zurich which brought an end to its run in the competition.

Besiktas came from a goal down at halftime to secure a 3-1 win over Stoke City, clinching the top spot in Group E and eliminating Dynamo Kyiv, which was held to a 3-3 draw by Maccabi Tel Aviv. Stoke had already sealed a place in the knockout round prior to Wednesday but will now go into the next stage as a runner up.

Steaua Bucharest jumped ahead of Maccabi Haifa on the final day in Group J as the Romanian side got two goals from Stefan Nikolic in a 3-1 win over AEK Larnaca, while Maccabi suffered a 3-0 defeat at home to Schalke, which had already clinched the group's top spot.

Fulham appeared on its way into the next round after building a 2-0 halftime lead against Odense, only for the London side to concede two goals in the second half, including a last-second goal from Baye Djiby Fall, to settle for a 2-2 draw. The result allowed Wisla Krakow to take over second place with a 2-1 win against first-place Twente.

Anderlecht and Lokomotiv Moscow had already locked up places in the knockout round from Group L, but the Belgian side capped a perfect group stage by beating Lokomotiv 5-3 to win the group, while AEK Athens claimed its first points in the group by topping Sturm Graz 3-1.