Key events
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-1 Legia Warsaw (Moreno 58)
A free kick swung in from a deep position on the right. Álex Moreno meets the dropping ball on the edge of the six-yard box, opens his body, and powers a sidefoot home. One more goal now, and Villa will be through to the round of 16!
Liverpool make some interesting changes. Mo Salah, Luis Diaz and Ibrahima Konate make way for Trent Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones. Nunez is quickly in the thick of it, slamming a shot from six yards straight at Tobias Lawal. Stunning save, though file under Should Never Have Been Allowed To Make It. He’d recently stopped a Harvey Elliott piledriver too. Chances are this won’t stay at 3-0; Salah will stop at 199 goals for the club tonight, though, and will have to wait for his double century. Fulham at the weekend, perhaps?
GOAL! Rangers 1-1 Aris (McCausland 49)
Philippe Clement vindicated! Ross McCausland, brought on for Todd Cantwell midway through the first half, justifies the tactical change. Danilo Pereira wins the ball 30 yards out, and slips wide right to McCausland, who drops a shoulder to enter the box before sending a forensic effort across the keeper, off the base of the left-hand post, and in!
Cody Gakpo threads a shot through a crowded box. The ball kisses the outside of the left-hand post and out for a goal kick.
Villa nearly fall behind … then nearly go ahead … against Legia Warsaw. Josué’s diving header loops over Robin Olsen and pings off the top of the crossbar. The home side counters at pace, Moussa Diaby driving in from the right and attempting a dink over keeper Kacper Tobiasz, who sticks out a strong arm to block.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-0 LASK (Salah 51 pen)
It’s Mohamed Salah’s 199th goal for Liverpool. He whips a penalty into the bottom right. It had been awarded after Cody Gakpo played a pass down the inside-left channel to nobody in particular. He chased after it himself, and got to the ball before keeper Tobias Lawal, who clumsily clattered into the striker.
The Rangers game is underway again. Philippe Clement had sent his team out early for the second half, clearly as unhappy with the team as the supporters were.
Second halves are kicking off around Europe. Liverpool should already have added to their tally against LASK, with both Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo messing up decent opportunities.
Some miserable news from Villa Park, courtesy of PA.
Police have been injured after violence from Legia Warsaw fans ahead of their game at Aston Villa. Missiles were thrown at police as the visiting fans were held in the coach park near Villa Park. Three police have been injured but the game started on time, although no Legia fans were allowed into the stadium ahead of kick-off.
A Birmingham Police statement on X read: “We’re currently unable to allow away fans into Villa Park following disorder outside the stadium which has seen missiles thrown at officers. Three officers have already been injured and a significant policing operation continues. Please avoid Witton Lane where possible.”
Two Premier League clubs have already secured their passage to the knockout stage of the Europa League. Brighton recovered from a poor first-half showing to see off AEK Athens …
… while West Ham United left it late against Backa Topola.
Half-time scores
Group B
Marseille 2-2 Ajax
Group C
Rangers 0-1 Aris Limassol
Group E
Liverpool 2-0 LASK
Toulouse 0-0 Union Saint-Gilloise
Group F
Villarreal 2-0 Panathinaikos
Group G
Servette 0-1 Roma
Sheriff Tiraspol 1-1 Slavia Prague
Group H
Häcken 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Molde 0-1 Qarabag
Plus! Europa Conference League Group E
Aston Villa 1-1 Legia Warsaw
HALF TIME: Rangers 0-1 Aris Limassol
The denizens of Ibrox boo their team off the park. The Philippe Clement honeymoon period didn’t last long.
HALF TIME: Aston Villa 1-1 Legia Warsaw
Villa are already guaranteed to finish in the top two of their Conference League group. They’ll need to win tonight by two goals if they’re to make sure of top spot with a game to spare. As a result, Unai Emery walks off looking pensive.
HALF TIME: Liverpool 2-0 LASK
Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo scored early. Kostas Tsimikas hit the bar, while Mohamed Salah fluffed a couple of very promising chances as he sashayed in from the right. As things stand, with Union Saint-Gilloise holding Toulouse in France, Liverpool are on course to win the group and go straight through to the round of 16 with a game to spare.
Douglas Luiz and Pawel Wszołek square up to each other at Villa Park. Both look pretty angry: had they been on their own in a pub car park, hands would surely have been thrown. But team-mates and officials intervene, and both calm down before being booked for their belligerence. It’s still 1-1.
Joe Gomez hasn’t scored a goal in 223 appearances for club and country. He’s rarely come closer than this, as he channels his inner Beckenbauer, dribbling in from the right and whistling a low bobbler across goal and inches wide of the left-hand post. It remains 2-0 to Liverpool.
Blimey, Philippe Clement has already seen enough at Ibrox. He makes a tactical sub after 36 minutes, hooking Todd Cantwell and sending on Ross McCausland. Cantwell goes off shaking his head, and muttering under his breath. Jings, crivvens, help ma boab, that sort of thing.
Rangers are beginning to struggle at Ibrox. Shavy Babicka once again burns past their back line, this time down the right wing, and pulls back for Aleksandr Kokorin, who should do much better than squirting high and wide right from ten yards. Rangers breathe again.
… and almost immediately after the restart, Kostas Tsimikas nearly makes it three for Liverpool. He takes a touch in from the left and unleashes a vicious rising shot that twangs off the crossbar with Tobias Lawal in the LASK goal beaten all ends up. That would have been an absolute pearler.
Luis Díaz exchanges passes with Ryan Gravenberch down the left and enters the box. He clatters straight into Andres Andrade. Liverpool want a penalty. There was contact all right – Diaz took a knee plumb in the trouser arrangement, ooyah, oof – but it was a fair 50-50 challenge. We play on.
GOAL! Rangers 0-1 Aris Limassol (Babicka 28)
The hosts had just picked up the pace and started to cause the visitors some problems … only for a simple long pass down the middle to rip them apart on the counter. Shavy Babicka goes chasing after it, beats Ben Davies for pace, rounds Jack Butland on the right, and strokes home. What an assured finish that was.
LASK continue to pile forward. They win a corner down the left, play it short, then work the ball towards Robert Žulj on the corner of the six-yard box. Žulj flicks a first-time effort inches wide of the goal, and it’s not clear if Caoimhin Kelleher had it covered. But the flag pops up for offside anyway.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-1 Legia Warsaw (Muci 20)
Boubacar Kamara, playing out from the back, tries to find Matty Cash on the left. He only succeeds in slapping the ball straight to Ernest Muçi, who makes no mistake in blootering a shot across Robin Olsen and in for the equaliser.
It’s still goalless at Ibrox between Rangers and Aris. Should the Light Blues win this evening, they’ll be guaranteed a top-two finish.
Liverpool are utterly rampant now. They look like adding to their total every time they go forward. LASK aren’t helping themselves by continuing to pile forward. Having said that, Moses Usor has just steamed down the left and delivered a low cross that forced Kostas Tsimikas to hook clear of the six-yard box with other white shirts lurking.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 LASK (Gakpo 15)
Gakpo makes up for his earlier miss by tapping home from close range. Diaz passed right for Salah, whose shot-cum-cross squirted past the keeper and across the face of goal for the Dutch star to sidefoot in.
Liverpool only need a draw tonight to confirm their place in the knockouts. So that’s a good start. But they’ll want to win the group, and thus advance to the last 16; for that to happen tonight, they’ll need to win while Toulouse do not. At the moment, it’s all looking good for the Reds, with the Toulouse-USG game currently goalless. But it’s very early days, of course.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 LASK (Diaz 12)
Yep, that’s settled them all right. Luis Diaz pings a cross out to the right for Joe Gomez, who returns it instantly. Diaz, having kept running, arrives from deep to steer a wonderful header into the top right!
Liverpool have made a fairly uncertain start against LASK, who have shown an eagerness to come at the hosts with attacking intent. But the first big chance of the evening falls to Jurgen Klopp’s men, Cody Gakpo shinning over from 12 yards when put through by Harvey Elliott. A settler, perhaps.
Earlier today in Villa’s group, Alkmaar beat Zrinsjki 1-0. That means they’re already guaranteed to finish in the top two. But now they’re halfway to making sure they’ll progress to the round of 16. A two-goal win will be enough for that.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Legia Warsaw (Diaby 4)
Villa are so hot right now, and they score with their first attack of the evening! Youri Tielemans sends Moussa Diaby away down the right. Diaby cuts infield, opens his body, and curls a shot into the bottom left. The perfect start.
FULL TIME: HJK Helsinki 2-2 Aberdeen. As the 8pms kick off, the last of the 5.45pm games comes to its conclusion. The Dons came from two goals down to draw, thanks to goals from Angus MacDonald and Duk.
The teams are out! Anfield, Ibrox and Villa Park reverberate with continental-tinged anticipation. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!
The big team news
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Souttar, Davies, Barisic, Lundstram, Cifuentes, Cantwell, Lammers, Sima, Danilo.
Subs: Dessers, Lawrence, Matondo, Sterling, Roofe, McCrorie, Kieran Wright, Devine, McCausland, McKinnon.
Aris Limassol: Vana, Yago, Mouketou-Moussounda, Urosevic, Caju, Bengtsson, Struski, Szoke, Babicka, Mayambela, Kokorin.
Subs: Brown, Spoljaric, Stepinski, Dimitriou, Brorsson, Montnor, Chrysostomou, Ellinas Sofroniou.
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Rangers make three changes after the draw at Aberdeen. John Souttar, Ben Davies and Sam Lammers replace Connor Goldson, Leon Balogun and Tom Lawrence.
Liverpool: Kelleher, Quansah, Gomez, Konate, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Endo, Elliott, Salah, Gakpo, Diaz.
Subs: van Dijk, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Mac Allister, Jones, Matip, Chambers, Marcelo, Gordon, Doak, Alexander-Arnold, Bradley.
LASK: Lawal, Ziereis, Andrade, Taloverov, Stojkovic, Horvath, Ljubic, Bello, Zulj, Usor, Ljubicic.
Subs: Renner, Kone, Balic, Jovicic, Mustapha, Havel, Ba, Goiginger, Siebenhandl, Flecker, Luckeneder, Darboe.
Aston Villa: Olsen, Cash, Konsa, Lenglet, Alex Moreno, McGinn, Kamara, Douglas Luiz, Tielemans, Diaby, Duran.
Subs: Martinez, Diego Carlos, Digne, Torres, Chambers, Zaniolo, Bailey, Dendoncker, Ramsey, Marschall.
Legia Warsaw: Tobiasz, Pankov, Jedrzejczyk, Kapuadi, Wszolek, Slisz, Elitim, Gil Dias, Josue, Gual, Muci.
Subs: Burch, Yuri Ribeiro, Pekhart, Augustyniak, Kramer, Celhaka, Rejczyk, Hladun, Kun, Rosolek, Kapustka, Strzalek.
Tonight’s 8pm kick-offs
Group B
Marseille v Ajax
Group C
Rangers v Aris Limassol
Group E
Liverpool v LASK
Toulouse v Union Saint-Gilloise
Group F
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Group G
Servette v Roma
Sheriff Tiraspol v Slavia Prague
Group H
Häcken v Bayer Leverkusen
Molde v Qarabag
Plus! Europa Conference League Group E
Aston Villa v Legia Warsaw