UEFA Champions League has already closed for the year, and today is turn for Europa League. As usual, all games are played on thurday, all except one: Fenerbahçe vs. Athletic Club.
The match was played yesterday, Wednesay, in order to avoid having two UEFA matches being played at the same time in the same city, Istanbul -the other being Istanbul Basaksehir at Conference League-. Yesterdat, Athletic Club Bilbao won 0-2, two goals by Iñaki Williams, becoming leaders provisionally.
Among today's most interesting matches we have Viktoria Plzeň vs Manchester United, two teams with the same amount of points, 9. Ruben Amorim still has chances to enter into the first eight, after two consecutive victories.
Two top European teams, Lyon and Eintracht Frankfurt (second in Bundesliga), will clash for the first time today, and both are in the top 8. Another clash between two top-8 teams is Ajax vs. Lazio.
Meanwhile, Real Sociedad has a golden opportunity to climb up in the charts as they are meeting Dinamo Kyiv, the only team with 0 points.
Remember that Europa League's new format works the same as Champions League's. That means teams between 1-8 get acces to round of 16 with preference (playing that second leg at home), teams between 25-36 are eliminated, and teams between 9 and 24 are seeded in the same way we explained here.
All Europa League fixtures for Thursday December 12
Games played at 18:45 CET, 1 hour prior in UK time
Roma vs Braga
Viktoria Plzeň vs Manchester United
Malmö vs Galatasaray
Olympiacos vs Twente
PAOK vs Ferencváros
Ludogorets vs AZ Alkmaar
Union SG vs Nice
Hoffenheim vs FCSB
Games played at 21:00 CET, 1 hour prior in UK time
Ajax vs Lazio
Porto vs Midtjylland
Bodø/Glimt vs Beşiktaş
Elfsborg vs Qarabağ
Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs RFS
Lyon vs Eintracht Frankfurt
Rangers vs Tottenham Hotspur
Real Sociedad vs Dynamo Kyiv
Slavia Praha vs Anderlecht