Tonight the premiership was represented by three English clubs competing for a place in the last 16 in the Europa League. Tonight Fulham were away at holders Shakhtar Donetsk, Liverpool travelled to Unirea Urziceni and Everton travelled to Sporting Lisbon.

Shakhtar Donetsk 1-1 Fulham (Aggregate 2-3)

Fulham went to Ukraine tonight with a 1-0 lead from the previous fixture at Craven Cottage. It was always going to be a tough ask for the Londoners as Shakhtar Donetsk are the current holders of the Europa League. It was the Ukrainian side who started off the better team as they dominated the match. Although Shakhtar Donetsk started the better side, it was actually Fulham who got the first goal. A free kick was awarded which was crossed in by Damien Duff, with Brede Hangeland rising and heading home Fulham’s first chance of the evening. It took Shakhtar Donetsk until the 69th minute to get an equaliser when Jadson scored from 12 yards out after all the hard work was done by Douglas Costa. Danny Murphy was sent off late on against the visitors after he kicked out at Darijo Srna, but Fulham held on to ensure a place in the next round and an exciting class against Juventus in the next round.

Sporting Lisbon 3-0 Everton (Aggregate 4-2)

Everton travelled to Portugal tonight with a 2-1 lead after winning the first leg at Goodison Park. This match was the battle of an in-form side and a team not in form at all. Everton who had just beaten Man United went to Portugal looking to qualify. It was a frustrating night for the Toffees in Lisbon, and the teams went in at half time at 0-0 with Everton believing that they could progress into the next round. But it wasn’t to be as Veloso scored from close range after 64 minutes bringing the tie to an aggregate draw. More bad luck then for Everton as Sporting increased their lead when Pedro Mendes saw a deflected shot go past goalkeeper Tim Howard. Lisbon then sealed the win when Djalo scored in injury-time.

Unirea Urziceni 1-3 Liverpool (Aggregate 1-4)

Liverpool maintained hopes of winning silverware this evening with a relatively easy win against the Romanian side Unirea Urziceni. It didn’t start off easy for Liverpool as Unirea took advantage of some woeful Liverpool defending and Fernandes was allowes to head in at the near post. Mascherano then pulled Liverpool level with a great long range effort. Liverpool then went on to go in at half time with the lead 5 minutes from time when Babel controlled the ball and fired the ball home. Liverpool sealed the win in the 57th minute when Steven Gerrard side footed the ball into the back of the net. Liverpool will now face Lille in the next round with the first leg being played in France.

David Osterland