(Football news) Napoli beat Leicester City 3-2 in a thrilling encounter to reach the Europa League knockout stages as Group C runners-up behind Spartak Moscow. Spartak won 1-0 against Legia Warsaw to secure first place and an automatic last-16 berth while Napoli face a playoff against one of the third-placed teams in the Champions League after the winter break.Third-placed Leicester go into the third-tier Europa Conference League where they will enter a playoff with one of the competition's runners-up for a last-16 berth. Adam Ounas fired Napoli into a lead after four minutes as he scored with a crisp low shot and they appeared to be in cruise control after Eljif Elmas made it 2-0 with a tap-in after some unselfish work from Andrea Petagna but three minutes later Jonny Evans drilled in a loose ball in the 27th minute and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall volleyed in the equaliser with his first goal for Leicester. Napoli had the final laugh as Elmas put them back in front shortly after the break, taking a tame-looking cross past a static defence before he scored past goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
Brendan Rodgers after the match said, "I've got to be honest I don't even know what the competition is, I was focused on the Europa League and winning this group and at the very least finishing second. But I am sure I will find out soon enough. There is a lot of naivety in our team, with a lot of young players and it has been a big demand for them this season. We have played a number of systems but individually it comes down to having that mentality to track a runner or stop a cross. We were good offensively but it was nowhere near good enough."
West Ham lost to Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 as they sealed an qualification play in the round of 16 playoffs. Mislav Orsic beat West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola with a dipping shot from the edge of the penalty area into the top corner in the 3rd minute at the London stadium. West Ham had already secured top spot and an automatic last-16 berth so David Moyes chose to give some academy graduates the chance to play European football. This was a perfect opportunity for some of the Hammers' youngsters to get some game time and for Moyes to rest some first-teamers in a busy month that will see them play nine times, including a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Tottenham on 22 December.
“I'm a winner and disappointed we didn't get something out of the game, I thought the young players did really well and recovered after losing an early goal. I'm always happy to give young players a chance but they have to earn the right to play and none of them let us down – they did a great job." said Moyes
Real Sociedad produced one of their best performances of the season under pressure when they won 3-0 against PSV. Sociedad went into the game third in Group B, two points behind PSV and five behind Monaco as Mikel Oyarzabal fired them into the lead two minutes before half-time with a penalty, before scoring his second to double their lead two minutes after the hour saw PSV defender Ibrahim Sangare get a red card and Alexander Soerloth made it 3-0 in injury time to ensure that Real Sociedad finish second and play in the round off 16 playoffs.
The other results were:
- Fenerbahce 1 (Berisha) – 1 Frankfurt (Sow)
- Lyon 1 (Bassey)(og) – 1 Rangers (Wright)
- Legia Warsaw 0 – 1 Spartak Moscow (Bakaev)
- Ferencvaros 1 (Laidouni) – 0 Leverkusen
- Celtic 3 (Welsh, Henderson, Turnbull) – 2 Real Betis (Bain(og), Iglesias)
- Marseille 1 (Milik) – 0 Lokomotiv Moscow
- Lazio 0 – 0 Galatasaray
