A last-gasp goal from Mousa Dembele booked English Premier League side Tottenham a place in the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday as he rescued a 3-2 aggregate win over French hosts Lyon.
Spurs, who now face Inter Milan, had won the opening encounter 2-1 but trailed for much of the match to a 17th-minute goal from Maxime Gonalons before a cracking drive from Dembele rescued the Londoners and saved them from an exit on away goals.
Joining Spurs in the next round were fellow English travellers Newcastle, who thanked Shola Ameobi's third European goal of the season for a 1-0 win at Metalist Kharkiv, the Ukrainians who held the Magpies to a goalless stalemate on Tyneside last week.
Newcastle were under the cosh for much of the match and Dutch keeper Tim Krul made several top drawer saves, before Ameobi struck on 64 minutes for a crucial away goal.
And despite late pressure from the Ukrainians -- Brazilian striker Willian hitting the post -- Newcastle, whose last trophy came in the old Fairs Cup, predecessor of the now defunt UEFA Cup, back in 1969, held on to advance as Kharkiv suffered only their second defeat in 12 outings at the Metalist Stadium.
Also Wednesday, Russia's Rubin Kazan put out holders Atletico Madrid 2-1 on aggregate despite Falcao giving the Spaniards the win by the only goal on the night.
Inter, European Cup winners in 2010, went through after a 3-0 romp at 10-man Romanians Cluj for a 5-0 aggregate success.
Colombian star Fredy Guarin scored a brace for Inter with Marco Benassi adding the third.
Elsewhere in early action, Germany's Stuttgart won 2-0 at Belgium's Genk for a 3-1 aggregate win while Italy's Lazio defeated German rivals Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0 with Antonio Andreva and Alvaro Gonzalez the scorers in the first half as the Romans progressed 5-3 overall.
Source: AFP
