Liverpool, Leverkusen and Atalanta advance to the round of 16 in the Europa League

To the tune of goals from Colombian Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo before the quarter-hour mark, Liverpool got rid of the Austrian club LASK 4-0 on Thursday to reach the round of 16 of the Europa League.

Díaz headed in a cross from Joe Gomez to open the scoring in the 12th minute at Anfield Stadium. Three minutes later, the Dutchman Gakpo only had to push home a pass from Mohamed Salah to extend the lead.

After the restart, Salah celebrated his 199th goal as a Liverpool player with a penalty kick. Gakpo ruled in the discounts.

Jürgen Klopp’s team leads Group E with 12 points, four more than Toulouse of France, who drew 0-0 at home with the Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise.

Meanwhile, Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen remained the only team with a perfect record after five days in the tournament after the 2-0 away victory against Hacken of Sweden. Victor Boniface and substitute Patrik Schick scored the goals for the Bundesliga leader and sealed their qualification in Group H.

The English West Ham and Brighton advanced to at least the playoffs

Czech midfielder Tomas Soucek scored for the fifth game in a row as West Ham beat TSC Bačka Topola 1-0. The London club shares the lead in Group A with German side Freiburg, which defeated Olympiakos of Greece 5-0. West Ham and Freiburg will meet on December 14 in the British capital to define first place in their bracket and avoid playing in the playoffs in February.

Brighton took a 1-0 victory against AEK in Athens. Brazilian João Pedro converted a penalty to secure the victory.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang converted his second penalty in stoppage time to complete a hat-trick and Olympique Marseille defeated outnumbered Ajax 4-3. The French club leads Group B with 11 points, two more than Brighton.

The eight group winners in the Europa League advance directly to the round of 16 and the runners-up will compete in playoffs against the teams that were relegated to the tournament after finishing third in the group stage of the Champions League.

Atalanta advanced non-stop to the round of 16 despite a 1-1 home draw with Sporting Lisbon. The Italians won Group D with 11 points and Sporting trails them with eight.

Roma’s 1-1 draw in their visit to Swiss Servette allowed Slavia Prague to take first place in Group G after beating Sheriff 3-2 at their home in Tiraspol, Moldova. Roma was two points behind the Czech team.