English giants Manchester United and Manchester City are both on the verge of a place in the Last 16 of the Europa League after grabbing away victories yesterday.
United returned to the competition with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Ajax at the Amstersdam Arena while City came from behind to beat Porto 2-1 at the Dragao stadium.
Having surprisingly dropped out of the Champions League, Sir Alex Ferguson’s side were handed a tricky last-32 pairing with the Dutch side, but claimed the first leg with little drama.
Ajax had the better of a goalless first-half but United took control after the break, with Ashley Young opening the scoring after 59 minutes and Javier Hernandez adding the second five minutes from time.
City endured a difficult start against Porto and fell behind after 27 minutes when Hulk broke down the left and crossed low for Silvestre Varela, who got ahead of Gael Clichy to turn the ball in from close range.
Roberto Mancini’s men fought back after the break and drew level on 55 minutes.
Pereira tried to cut out a Yaya Toure cross aimed at Mario Balotelli but the ball struck his shoulder and bounced beyond a wrong-footed Helton into the net for an own goal.
City made a crucial substitution with 12 minutes remaining as Aguero came on to replace Balotelli.
It was a change which paid off within six minutes as Nasri played in Toure and he pulled back for an unmarked Aguero to calmly side-foot the winner from six yards.
There was no joy for the other English club in action yesterday as Stoke City suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Valencia.
Mehmet Topal struck the winner with a 30-yard screamer on 36 minutes.
Atletico Madrid also impressed, seeing off Lazio 3-1 at the Stadio Olimpico.
Germany striker Miroslav Klose gave the Serie A side the lead in the 19th minute but the Spanish side came back hard with three away goals that puts the tie firmly in their favour.
Adrian equalised six minutes after the opener, with Falcao (37, 63) scoring either side of the interval.
Salzburg are all but out of the competition after a 4-0 drubbing by visitors Metalist Kharkiv.
They scored in the first and last minutes of the match through Taison and Bonfim Marlos, with Jonathan Cristaldo scoring a twice in three minutes in between.
Lokomotiv Moscow took the win but surrendered an away goal in a 2-1 success of Athletic Bilbao.
Iker Munain put the Primera Liga side in front but second-half strikes from Felipe Caceido and Denis Glushakov (penalty), reversed the result.
Schalke drew 1-1 at Viktoria Plzen, Klaas Jan-Huntelaar equalising Vladimar Darida’s first-half effort.
Results
Lok. Moscow vs Ath. Bilbao 2-1
Ajax vs Manchester United 0-2
Salzburg vs Metalist Kharkov 0-4
AZ Alkmaar vs Anderlecht 1-0
Lazio vs Atletico Madrid 1-3
Viktoria Plzen vs Schalke 04 1-1
Legia Warsaw vs Sporting Lisbon 2-2
S. Bucharest vs Twente 0-1
Trabzonspor vs PSV 1-2
Porto vs Manchester City 1-2
Stoke City vs Valencia 0-1
Wisla Krakow vs S. Liege 1-1
Udinese vs PAOK Salonika 0-0
Hanover vs Bruges 2-1
Second legs – February 22/23.