Man Utd, Spurs enjoy Europa League boost

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PARIS: Manchester United and Tottenham both got some much-needed respite from their Premier League woes with Europa League victories on Thursday.

Bruno Fernandes scored an injury-time winner in United’s 2-1 defeat by Scottish giants Rangers, while in Germany Son Heung-min scored twice in Spurs’ 3-2 win at Hoffenheim. Both English teams qualified directly to the last 16.

The Red Devils were looking increasingly desperate at Old Trafford when a series of goals scored against injury-ravaged Rangers in the 88th minute. The Scottish side fell behind early in the second half when goalkeeper Jack Butland put the ball into his own net.

Fernandes saved United’s embarrassment and possibly the play-off round by blasting home in stoppage time. United were controversially denied a goal earlier when Matthijs de Ligt’s powerful header was disallowed for a foul on Robin Proper and VAR did not intervene.

United have moved up to fourth in the table with one league game remaining. The top 8 will qualify directly for the last 16, who can now move ahead of Rangers who have moved up to 13th.

A point should be enough for United to secure a place in the top eight and avoid the play-off round next week in Romania away to FCSB. “Today was important for the win because we want to win the Europa League, we want to go to the final,” Fernandes said.

“We want to be in the top eight so we avoid playing two more games.” Spurs are sixth in the new league stage format with Lazio at the top, having beaten Real Sociedad 3-1 to seal their ticket to the knockout stages.

Eintracht Frankfurt, who beat Ferencvaros 2-0, are in second place. Goals from Son and James Maddison took some of the heat out of Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou, whose side have lost seven of their last nine Premier League games.

Postecoglou had promised London’s first silverware since 2008 in his second season as boss. Spurs are struggling in 15th place at home, behind Liverpool, having missed out on the Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup to fulfill their promise.

A win against Swedish outfit Elfsborg in their penultimate league stage game at home next week would give them an automatic ticket to the next round as one of the top eight finishers. “I told them to enjoy it,” Postecoglou told TNT Sports.

“To win in Europe, it’s an important victory for us and puts us in a good place to get into the top eight which will give us a week off,” the Australian added. Tottenham charged out of the stalls with Maddison collecting a point-to-point pass from Pedro Porro to fire the ball past keeper Oliver Bowman into the roof of the net to give Spurs the perfect start after just four minutes. could

Richarlison, making just his second start of the campaign, could have doubled the advantage but the Brazilian’s shot went straight to Bowman. On 22 minutes Maddison turned provider to set up Sun whose shot deflected off a defender, the ball flying over Baumann and into the far corner.

The big problem for Spurs was maintaining their lead due to their weak defence. Brendan Austin began scoring for them, two weeks after making his debut, and Tom Bischoff was called upon to make a save down the stretch to deny him the half-time signal.

Hoffenheim halved their deficit with the wind in their sails when Spurs were caught on the counter, Anton Stauch headed the ball past Aston. But Sun’s angled shot with 13 minutes left on the clock settled matters, although David Mokwa’s goal two minutes from time meant another nerve-wracking end for long-time Tottenham supporters.

Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce drew 0-0 with fifth-placed Lyon, leaving the Turkish side in 23rd place. Two Real Sociedad fans were taken to hospital after their group was apparently attacked by die-hard Lazio supporters before the match at Rome’s Olympic Stadium, the Spanish club said.