Liverpool slip up; Leverkusen first into knockouts
Liverpool's comeback fell short in a 3-2 loss to Toulouse in the Europa League on Thursday as Bayern 04 Leverkusen became the first side to qualify for the knockouts. Toulouse's Aron Dønnum scored in the first-half and Thijs Dallinga doubled the advantage just before the hour mark for the hosts, who lost 5-1 at Anfield two weeks ago. An own goal from Cristian Cásseres made it 2-1 in the 74th minute but Frank Magri quickly restored the two-goal lead. Diogo Jota came on for Diaz in the 81st minute and scored eight minutes later. Liverpool thought they had equalised in stoppage time but Jarell Quansah's goal was disallowed by the VAR. "It was well deserved to lose because they won pretty much all the decisive challenges, battles," said frustrated Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. “We have too many situations where we should have won the ball but we didn't." Liverpool lead Group E with nine points from four games. Toulouse trail by two in second. Bundesliga leaders Leverkusen reached the round of 16 after Victor Boniface scored a stoppage time penalty in a 1-0 victory at Qarabag in Group H. In Amsterdam, Brighton scored early in each half to beat Ajax in 2-0 for their second straight win. Forward Ansu Fati gave the Seagulls the lead against the run of play amid Ajax’s early dominance. Simon Adingra doubled it on a counter-attack to lift Brighton to second place in Group B with seven points. Marseille lead with eight after Chancel Mbemba and Ismaïla Sarr scored in a 2-0 win at AEK Athens. Slavia beat Roma 2-0 in Prague, handing José Mourinho’s team their first defeat. Slavia and Roma are tied atop Group G with nine points each. At the London Stadium, Lucas Paquetá’s late volley secured a 1-0 win for West Ham over Olympiacos to stay level on points with Freiburg at the top of Group A. Danilo Pereira and Todd Cantwell scored within eight first-half minutes to set Rangers on the way to a 2-1 victory over Sparta Prague. The Scots are second in Group C on seven points. Meanwhile, in the Europa Conference League, Diego Carlos and Ollie Watkins rallied Aston Villa past AZ Alkmaar 2-1, to share the lead of Group E with Legia Warsaw. And two Israeli clubs returned to action in UEFA competitions after being unable to play two weeks ago because of the country’s war with Hamas. Villarreal rallied in the second-half to defeat Maccabi Haifa 2-1 in a Europa League game played in Cyprus. While Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Zorya Luhansk of Ukraine 3-1 in a Europa Conference League game staged in the Polish city of Lublin between two teams displaced by war. (AP)