Lyon of France and Aston Villa of England officially reserved their place in the quarter-finals of the European League (Europa League) in football, after defeating their hosts Young Boys of Switzerland 1-0, and Fenerbahce of Turkey with the same score, on Thursday, in the seventh round of the unified group stage.In Bern, Lyon returned with a valuable victory in which it maintained its lead in the unified group standings, and owes the credit for its victory to the goal of Englishman Ainsley Maitland-Niles (45+1).By achieving its sixth victory out of seven matches, the French club raised its score to 18 points in first place, on goal difference from Aston Villa.In Istanbul, Jaydon Sancho led his team, Aston Villa, to secure qualification to the quarter-finals, without the need to compete in the qualifying play-off, after scoring the winning goal with a header in the middle of the first half (25).The brilliance of Dutch goalkeeper Marco Pizot prevented the hosts from returning the result, after he blocked a barrage of opportunities.In contrast, Danish Midtjylland, the former leader and the surprise of the current edition, wasted a sure victory after falling into the trap of a last-minute draw against its host, Brann of Norway, 3-3.
While the Danish team was heading towards victory, Joachim Soltvedt scored the equalizer from a penalty kick in the tenth minute of stoppage time (90+10).
Despite the draw, Midtjylland is still close to qualifying, but has dropped to fourth place with 16 points, one point behind Germany's Freiburg, who moved up to third place after beating Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0.
