UEFA Europa League round of 32 second leg Round Up ; Napoli sink Swansea,as FC Porto go through in dramatic fashion
Napoli ended Swansea City's adventure in the Europa League on Thursday with a decisive 3-1 win in the second leg of their round of 32 tie, while there were goals aplenty elsewhere.
Swansea travelled to southern Italy hoping that their failure to find a breakthrough in last week's goalless first leg would not ultimately cost them.
The Serie A side took the lead 17 minutes in at the San Paolo stadium when Lorenzo Insigne cutely lifted the ball over Michel Vorm in the away goal.
However, Garry Monk's men hit back to grab a crucial away goal on the half-hour mark, Jonathan De Guzman's low strike from the edge of the box beating Napoli 'keeper Pepe Reina.
For a long time it looked as if Swansea would progress on away goals, but Gonzalo Higuain took advantage of a lucky ricochet in the box to put the hosts back in front 12 minutes from time, and Gokhan Inler made sure of Napoli's progress in stoppage time.
Napoli will now face 2011 Europa League winners Porto in the round of 16, after the Portuguese club won a remarkable tie against Eintracht Frankfurt of the Bundesliga.
Following a 2-2 draw in last week's first leg, Eintracht looked to be going through thanks to goals from Stefan Aigner and Alexander Meier either side of the interval.
A double from Porto's France international defender Eliaquim Mangala silenced the crowd of close to 50,000 in the Commerzbank Arena, only for Meier to put the hosts back in front.
But Nabil Ghilas netted four minutes from time to make it 3-3 on the night and take Porto through on away goals, the result easing the pressure on coach Paulo Fonseca.
Sevilla, who are eighth in La Liga, beat Maribor of Slovenia 2-1 on the night to go through 4-3 on aggregate, while Betis, the Spanish top flight's bottom club, were impressive 2-0 winners away to Rubin Kazan in Russia, advancing 3-1 overall,to set up a mouth-watering prospect of a derby clash between city rivals Sevilla and Real Betis in the round of 16 .
The 2009 UEFA Cup winners Shakhtar Donetsk were eliminated by Viktoria Pilsen of the Czech Republic and will face Lyon in France,as Ajax fell by the wayside too, going down 6-1 on aggregate to Salzburg, who will next face Basel of Switzerland.
Tottenham Hotspur are through to the last 16 of the Europa League after a dramatic recovery saw them get the better of ten-man Dnipro at White Hart Lane on Thursday.
After losing 1-0 in the first leg of the round of 32 tie in Ukraine last week, Spurs looked to be heading out of the tournament when Roman Zozulya headed in a delivery from visiting captain Ruslan Rotan two minutes into the second half.
That left the Premier League club needing to score three unanswered goals to go through, but a Christian Eriksen free-kick reduced the deficit on 55 minutes before Zozulya was shown a straight red card by the French referee following a headbutt on Jan Vertonghen.
Spurs made the most of their man advantage as Emmanuel Adebayor struck twice in the space of four minutes to seal a 3-1 win on the night and go through 3-2 on aggregate.
The Togolese forward later told ITV that he was never worried about his team's situation, saying: "Not at all. I know we have quality up front.
"We just kept our focus very well and scored that good free-kick that put us on our way. I managed to get two goals for the team and we're very happy."
Tim Sherwood's side will now face last season's beaten finalists Benfica, who saw off PAOK of Greece, and they will do so as the only Premier League side left in the tournament after Swansea City went down 3-1 to Napoli in Italy.
Elsewhere, there will be a mouth-watering all-Italian tie between Juventus and Fiorentina after they eased past Trabzonspor and Esbjerg respectively.The Bianconeri, looking to reach the final at their very own stadium, made light work of Trabzonspor AŞ while their Serie A counterparts saw off Esbjerg fB.
FC Anji Makhachkala, also advanced after defeating KRC Genk. They now face AZ Alkmaar
Quickest out of the blocks were SS Lazio, who went in front at PFC Ludogorets Razgrad through Keita Baldé's strike after just 16.88 seconds – the second-fastest goal in this competition's history. Ludogorets bounced back, however, and will next come up against Valencia CF
UEFA Europa League - Round of 32 Second leg results
Rubin Kazan 0 - 2 Real Betis (Agg 1-3)
Basel 3 - 0 Maccabi Tel Aviv (Agg 3-0)
Frankfurt 3 - 3 a* FC Porto (Agg 5-5)
PFC Ludogorets Razgrad 3 - 3 Lazio (Agg 4-3)
SSC Napoli 3 - 1Swansea City (Agg 3-1)
Salzburg 3 - 1Ajax (Agg 6-1)
Sevilla 2 - 1 Maribor (Agg 4-3)
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 - 2 Viktoria Plzen (Agg 2-3)
AZ Alkmaar 1 - 1 Liberec (Agg 2-1)
Benfica 3 - 0 PAOK Thessaloniki FC (Agg 4-0)
Fiorentina 1 - 1 Esbjerg fB (Agg 4-2)
Genk 0 - 2 Anzhi Makhachkala (Agg 0-2)
Lyon 1 - 0 Chornomorets O. (Agg 1-0)
Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 1 Dnipro (Agg 3-2)
Trabzonspor 0 - 2 Juventus (Agg4-0)
Valencia 0 - 0 Dynamo Kyiv (Agg 2-0)
UEFA Europa League Round of 16 draw (13 & 20 March)
AZ Alkmaar (NED) v FC Anji Makhachkala (RUS)
PFC Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) v Valencia CF (ESP)
FC Porto (POR) v SSC Napoli (ITA)
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) v FC Viktoria Plzeň (CZE)
Sevilla FC (ESP) v Real Betis Balompié (ESP)
Tottenham Hotspur FC (ENG) v SL Benfica (POR)
FC Basel 1893 (SUI) v FC Salzburg (AUT)
Juventus (ITA) v ACF Fiorentina (ITA)
Road to Turin 2014
Final: Wednesday 14 May, Juventus Stadium
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