Europa League wrap: Defending champions eliminated

Reigning champions Atletico Madrid have been dumped out of the Europa League after a 1-1 draw against Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday.

Atletico needed to achieve a better result than Greek side Aris Thessaloniki in the final match of the group stage, but their draw at the BayArena combined with Aris’ 2-0 win over Rosenborg saw the defending champions eliminated from the competition.
Patrick Helmes made the most of a one-on-one situation to open the scoring for Leverkusen in the 70th minute.
Substitute Fran Merida gave Atletico hope by firing in a rebound from Douglas Costa’s shot just two minutes after Helmes’ opener.
But the defending champions were unable to find a winner and slumped out of the competition at the first hurdle.
In the other Group B match, Danijel Cesarec and Ricardo Faty were on the scoresheet as Aris sealed their qualification with a 2-0 victory over Rosenborg.
In Group A, a Jo equaliser with 13 minutes remaining earned Manchester City a 1-1 draw against Juventus in Turin, securing top spot in the group for Roberto Mancini’s side.
Juve debutant Niccolo Giannetti opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time as he turned in Alessandro Del Piero’s cross.
But City grabbed a deserved equaliser when Jo latched on to Adam Johnson’s through ball and fired his shot past Juventus goalkeeper Alexander Manninger in the 77th minute.
City topped the group after the draw and will be joined by Lech Poznan in the knock-out stages after Semir Stilic’s 30th minute goal giving the Polish side a 1-0 win away to Salzburg.
In Group C, Lille qualified for the next stage with a 3-0 win over Gent in France.
The result was harsh on Levski Sofia, who defeated group leaders Sporting Lisbon 1-0, but missed out on progression by a single point.
Zenit St Petersburg, who had already qualified from Group G in first place, beat AEK Athens 3-0 away from home, while Anderlecht defeated Hajduk Split 2-0 at home to secure second.
The Belgian side finished level on points with AEK, but progress to the next round courtesy of a superior head-to-head record against the Greeks.
Stuttgart hammered Danish side Odense 5-1 to cement top place in Group H, while Young Boys went down 1-0 away to Getafe, but were already guaranteed second.
In Group I, top two PSV Eindhoven and Metalist Kharkiv played out a 0-0 draw having already booking their places in the last 32, while bottom side Debrecen beat Sampdoria 2-0 in a dead rubber.