What happened in final round of Europa League matches?

Aston Villa led the way for British clubs in the Europa League on Thursday as they fought back to defeat Red Bull Salzburg and finish second in the competition’s league phase.

Villa, who had already secured automatic qualification prior to kick-off, finished behind Lyon, while Nottingham Forest and Celtic will hope to join them in the last 16 after advancing to February’s knockout play-offs.

Sean Dyche’s side thrashed Ferencvaros 4-0, while Celtic scored three goals inside the first 20 minutes on their way to a 4-2 win over Utrecht.

However, it was another disappointing evening for already-eliminated Rangers who slipped to a sixth consecutive away defeat in Europe at Porto.

Midtjylland finished third after ending their league phase campaign with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Dinamo Zagreb in Denmark.

Former Manchester United winger Antony set Real Betis on their way to a 2-1 win over Feyenoord as the La Liga side ended in fourth, heading a quartet of clubs on 17 points.

Porto came from behind to defeat Rangers 3-1 as they wrapped up fifth spot, with Braga directly behind them in the table despite being involved in the only goalless game on Thursday evening at Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles.

Freiburg’s hopes of a top-three place were ended by a late Olivier Giroud penalty in their 1-0 loss at Lille, with the German side finishing in seventh.

After a remarkable night of drama in the Champions League on Wednesday, it’s fair to say Thursday night was a more low-key affair in the Europa League as far as qualification for the play-off round was concerned.

Of the 16 teams that occupied positions nine to 24 before a ball was kicked, 14 of them sealed a place in the play-offs when the full-time whistles sounded out across the continent.

The two exceptions to that trend were Porto and Young Boys.

In the case of the Portuguese giants, it was in joyful circumstances as a 3-1 home win against Rangers was enough to fire them up to fifth and secure direct qualification to the last-16 stage.

But it was contrasting emotions for Young Boys

The Swiss side started the night in 23rd place and appeared on course for a place in the play-offs until they suffered a cruel 3-2 defeat in the last minute against Stuttgart.

The loss – which came after Gerardo Seoane’s side fought from 2-0 down – saw them finish the eight-game league phase in 25th place.

Elsewhere, Celtic ensured they would be one of the 16 clubs in the hat for Friday’s draw as they held off a second-half fightback from Utrecht to claim a 4-2 win at Parkhead.

The win moved Celtic up three positions to 21st – and sees them join fellow British side Nottingham Forest in the play-off round.

Two-time European champions Forest recorded an emphatic 4-0 win over Ferencvaros to climb to 13th in the table.

Despite the win, not enough results went in their favour for them to be able to sneak automatic qualification to the knockout round.

The two British clubs will be joined by Genk, Bologna, Stuttgart, Ferencvaros, Viktoria Plzen, FK Crvena Zvezda, Celta Vigo, PAOK, Lille, Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos, Ludogorets, Dinamo Zagreb and Brann.

The draw for the Europa League play-off round takes place in Switzerland on Friday.

Rangers were one of six sides who could not make the play-offs before Thursday’s games, along with Sturm Graz, Nice, Utrecht, Malmo and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile Young Boys led a group of teams with lingering hopes of making the play-offs, though they were dashed in heart-breaking fashion in Germany as they battled from two goals down before conceding a 90th minute winner to be eliminated.

It was similar disappointment for RB Salzburg, who despite leading for half an hour at Villa Park on the final night of action, slumped to a sixth defeat from eight league phase games to finish 31st.

Go Ahead Eagles claimed an impressive point at home to high-flying Braga but they too were eliminated, ultimately ending two points shy of the play-offs alongside FCSB.

The 16 teams in the play-offs will learn their opponents in Friday’s draw at 12:00 GMT.

The first legs will be played on Thursday 19 February, with return legs a week later on 26 February.

The seeded team will play the return leg at home.

The fixtures for the knockout phase play-offs will be determined after a draw that applies the following principles.

Clubs will be coupled based on their positions at the end of the league phase to form four seeded pairs (clubs in positions nine and 10, 11 and 12, 13 and 14, and 15 and 16) and then four unseeded pairs (17 and 18, 19 and 20, 21 and 22, and 23 and 24).

The clubs in each seeded pair are drawn into the knockout phase bracket, against the clubs in each unseeded pair.