A roundup of all of Thursday’s results in the UEFA Europa League, where Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal each kept a clean sheet in comfortable victories, and Jamie Vardy sent Leicester City through to the knockout rounds with a 94th-minute equalizer…
Carlos Vinicius score his first two goals for Tottenham (and he needed just 34 minutes to do so), Dele Alli started and assisted Vinicius for his second goal, Tanguy Ndombele turned in another fine performance as the midfield’s driving force, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min remained glued to the bench from start to finish, Harry Winks (accidentally) scored a goal from 55 yards out, and Ludogorets couldn’t muster a single shot over the whole of 90 minutes.
In short, it was the perfect result and virtually perfect performance that Jose Mourinho will have wanted to see ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Chelsea (Watch live, 11:30 am ET, on NBCSN and online via NBCSports.com).
With two games left to play in the group stage, Spurs sit atop Group J by way of goal difference. Royal Antwerp, who beat Spurs in Belgium last month, are level with Mourinho’s men on nine points.
Molde 0-3 Arsenal
Arsenal needed a bit longer to get off the mark away to Molde, but once they did Mikel Arteta’s side looked like a runaway train. Nicolas Pepe, fresh off his red card for a headbutt on the weekend, opened the scoring in the 50th minute, following by Reiss Nelson’s first of the season just five minutes later.
Folarin Balogun made it 3-0 and put the game to bed in the 83rd.
With four wins from four games, the Gunners have officially clinched their place in the knockout rounds and need just a point from their final two games (or points dropped by both of Molde and Rapid Vienna) to win the group.
Braga 3-3 Leicester City
Speaking of needing a little extra time, Leicester needed every last second (and a few more) to secure a point away to Braga and confirm their progression to the knockout rounds as well.
After falling 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 behind, Brendan Rodgers’ side showed incredible resolve to claw back a trio of equalizers in the 9th (Harvey Barnes), 78th (Luke Thomas) and 94th minutes.
Other notable Europa League results
Lille 1-1 AC Milan
Napoli 2-0 Rijeka
CFR Cluj 0-2 Roma
Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-1 Villarreal
AZ Alkmaar 0-0 Real Sociedad
Sparta Prague 4-1 Celtic
Rangers 2-2 Benfica
Slovan Liberec 0-2 Hoffenheim
Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 Hapoel Be’er Sheva
Nice 1-3 Slavia Prague
CSKA Moscow 0-0 Feyenoord
PSV Eindhoven 3-2 PAOK Thessaloniki
Europa League: Spurs, Arsenal cruise to big wins; Vardy saves the day originally appeared on NBCSports.com
