Europa League: Spurs fightback to dump Dnipro

Emmanuel Adebayor celebrates the winning goal. Picture: AFP

Having lost 1-0 in Dnipropetrovsk last week, Tim Sherwood’s Tottenham side were further up against it when Roman Zozulya headed the visitors ahead shortly after the break before rallying to win 3-2 on aggregate. But the tie swung back in their favour in 13 second-half minutes as Christian Eriksen levelled on the night before Zozulya received a red card for a headbutt on Jan Vertonghen, who seemed to go down easily.

Adebayor then struck twice in four minutes to set up an eye-catching tie with Benfica.

Swansea’s Europa League adventure came to an end in Italy as they lost 3-1 to Rafa Benitez’s Napoli. The Swans, playing in their first-ever knockout round in Europe, turned in an impressive display but just fell short at the San Paolo stadium.

Lorenzo Insigne put the hosts ahead in the 16th minute before Jonathan De Guzman equalised on the half-hour. That would have seen the Welsh side through on away goals but Gonzalo Higuain put Napoli back in front in the 78th minute.

The Swans came agonisingly close to making it 2-2 with two minutes remaining but Napoli goalkeeper Jose Reina produced a fantastic one-handed save to repel Dwight Tiendalli’s header. Gokhan Inler then put the tie beyond doubt when he scored his team’s third seconds from time. Next up for Napoli are Porto, who came from 2-0 and 3-2 down to draw 3-3 at Eintracht Frankfurt and advance on away goals after the tie ended 5-5 on aggregate.

The Germans led 2-0 following a goal either side of half-time from Stefan Aigner and Alexander Meier, but the visitors responded through an Eliaquim Mangala brace. Meier struck again to put Eintracht back in pole position to progress, but substitute Nabil Ghilas’ 86th-minute goal turned the tie back in the Portuguese side’s favour.

Sevilla and Real Betis set up a mouthwatering derby in the last 16. Sevilla won 2-1 at home to Maribor of Slovenia, goals from Jose Antonio Reyes (42) and Kevin Gameiro (59) helping them complete a 4-3 aggregate win. Dare Vrsic pulled one back in stoppage time for the visitors. Betis claimed an impressive 2-0 win at Rubin Kazan to go through 3-1 on aggregate. Nono put the visitors ahead on the stroke of half-time and Ruben Castro grabbed a second shortly after the hour mark.

Elsewhere, two sides who came into the competition from the Champions League fell by the wayside as Shakhtar Donetsk and Ajax crashed out.

Shakhtar went down 2-1 at home to Viktoria Plzen to lose 3-2 on aggregate. Ajax were as good as out following their 3-0 home loss to Salzburg and things got little better in the second leg as they lost 3-1. Salzburg will play Basel after the Swiss side won 3-0 at home to Maccabi Tel-Aviv after a goalless first leg in Israel.

Lazio lost 4-3 on aggregate to Ludogorets Razgrad after they threw away a two-goal lead and conceded an 89th-minute equaliser in a 3-3 draw in Bulgaria.