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Europa League round-up: Inter Milan seal top spot

A stadium employee tries to remove water from the pitch in Estoril, Portugal
A stadium employee tries to remove water from the pitch in Estoril, Portugal

Inter Milan beat Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2-1 in the Europa League to seal top spot in Group F.

The visitors opened the scoring through Ruslan Rotan, but Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic saved Yevhen Konoplyanka to keep his side in touch and goals from Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Dani Osvaldo turned the match around.

Second spot will be filled by either Dnipro or St Etienne, who played out a 1-1 draw. Vuqar Nadirov put the Azerbaijani visitors ahead before Ricky van Wolfswinkel stabbed home an equaliser.

Tottenham and Besiktas secured the top two places in Group C.

Besiktas progressed with a 2-2 draw at Asteras Tripoli despite going down to 10 men.

Demba Ba opened the scoring for Besiktas before Gokhan Tore added the second from the penalty spot.

Substitute Jeronimo Barrales headed Asteras back into contention, with things going from bad to worse for the Turkish visitors when Atiba Hutchinson was sent off for his second bookable offence. Facundo Parra then levelled the scores in the 83rd minute but Besiktas held on for a point.

Group A is a three-way battle between Borussia Monchengladbach, Villarreal and FC Zurich.

Gladbach and Villarreal occupy the top two spots heading into the final round following a 2-2 draw. The La Liga side twice took the lead through Luciano Vietto and Denis Cheryshev, only for Raffael and Granit Xhaka to level for the Germans.

Zurich fell behind to a goal from Brazilian forward Rosa but fought back to beat Apollon Limassol 3-1, thanks to Yassine Chikhaoui's double plus another from Berat Djimsiti.

Group B will also go down to the wire after Torino and Club Brugge fought out a goalless draw and HJK Helsinki snatched a last-minute 2-1 win over FC Copenhagen, who were dumped out of the competition.

Macoumba Kandji was the hero for HJK Helsinki, heading home in stoppage time just three minutes after Per Nilsson's equaliser had cancelled out Gideon Baah's 28th minute opener.

Dinamo Moscow made sure of top spot in Group E with a 2-1 win over Panathinaikos.

Marcus Berg headed Panathinaikos into the lead before William Vainqueur's shot was deflected to level the scores after the break. Aleksei Ionov's strike added the Russian's second goal and claimed the victory.

The group's other match between Estoril and PSV Eindhoven was abandoned at half-time due to a waterlogged pitch.

Estoril were leading 3-2 when play was halted, with the match to be played to a conclusion on Friday afternoon. A win for PSV would see them secure second place in the group.

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