Several teams can clinch places in the UEFA Europa League knockout stage as group play resumes on Thursday.
Manchester City, Sporting Lisbon, CSKA Moscow, Stuttgart, Porto, Paris-St. Germain and Zenit St. Petersburg all will be assured places in the final 32 with victories in their respective matches.
Meanwhile, Villarreal's Jozy Altidore and Anderlecht's Sacha Kljestan each come off goal-scoring weeks looking to carry their form over to European competition.
If you will be watching any or all of Thursday's Europa League matches, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions or play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the action (TV schedule is after the jump):
THURSDAY'S UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE ON TV
2 p.m. - GOLTV – Juventus vs. Salzburg
2 p.m. - DirecTV 481 – Lech Poznan vs Manchester City
2 p.m. - DirecTV 482 – Rosenborg vs. Atletico Madrid
2 p.m. - DirecTV 483 – PAOK Salonika vs. Villarreal
2 p.m. - DirecTV 484 – CSKA Moscow vs. Palermo
2 p.m. - DirecTV 485 – Bayer Leverkusen vs. Aris Salonika
2 p.m. - DirecTV 486 – Gent vs. Sporting Lisbon
2 p.m. - DirecTV 487 – Levski Sofia vs. Lille
2 p.m. - DirecTV 488 – Dynamo Kiev vs. AZ Alkmaar
4 p.m. - GOLTV – Liverpool vs. Napoli
4 p.m. - DirecTV 481 – Paris-St. Germain vs. Borussia Dortmund
4 p.m. - DirecTV 482 – Getafe vs. Stuttgart
4 p.m. - DirecTV 483 – Sevilla vs. Karpaty Lviv
4 p.m. - DirecTV 484 – Porto vs. Besiktas
4 p.m. - DirecTV 485 – PSV Eindhoven vs. Debreceni
4 p.m. - DirecTV 486 – Sampdoria vs. Metalist Kharkiv
4 p.m. - DirecTV 487 – Hajduk Split vs. Zenit St. Petersburg
4 p.m. - DirecTV 488 – Steaua Bucuresti vs. Utrecht
NOT TELEVISED
2 p.m. – Club Brugge vs. Dinamo Zagreb
2 p.m. – BATE Borisov vs. Sheriff Tiraspol
2 p.m. – Lausanne Sports vs. Sparta Prague
4 p.m. – AEK Athens vs. RSC Anderlecht
4 p.m. – Odesne BK vs. Young Boys
4 p.m. – Rapid Vienna vs. CSKA Sofia
Altidore in the starting 11. Paired with Nilmar.
First 15 seconds he draws a foul. Awful foul. he seems okay now
Jozy is starting up top with Nilmar. Time for him to score a Europa League goal, eh?
Hooray for a sinus infection that kept me at home for the rest of the week!
Altidore just took a nasty knock on the ankle, excited to see him playing.
Altidore should have had a penalty. Got taken down by the keeper. Tough call for the referee though, at first look i thought the keeper got ball but replay showed he missed and got all Jozy.
I’ll have to re-watch during the endless halftime replays, but I saw him try to dribble around the keeper and the keeper snagged his attempt.
Jozy’s starting?! Keep the details coming guys – stuck at work.
Thats what i thought, but on replay it looked like the keeper missed the ball and caught his ankle… Could have just been the fact i’m watching on a tiny corner of my work computer trying to keep it hidden from others though!
Jozy just got hacked down and took a long time to get up. Getting checked out on the sidelines . . .
Altidore fouled again. Defender gets a yellow.
Pretty sloppy match so far. No rhythm.
Jozy with a great chance but a sliding defender got his foot in and blocked his shot. Say what you will about his finishing, but lately Jozy is getting smarter and making better runs then i remember him doing in the past. Now he just needs some control in the box.
Altidore causing all manner of havoc. Hope he can put one in the net.
Jozy makes a good run into the box, the ball is played into him, he takes a shot first time but it is blocked away by a great tackle.
Anyone know the best live commentary? Video blocked at werk.
ours not sufficient? lol
keep commentating!
Small explosion on the sidelines? Surprised play wasn’t stopped for that.
Altidore and Nilmar almost combining in the box…but it was cleared by the D
Neat passing sequence in tight space between Jozy and Nilmar…final ball out of Nilmar’s reach, though.
Altidore with a shot from 40 yards out! Hits the cross bar and goes wide. Audacious…
wtf, im following along on the UEFA commentary and there is no mention of that. haha sounds sick though
and upon further investigation, there was no commentary from the 31st to 40th minute…
UEFA hates Americans.
Then again, maybe I dreamed it…
josmer w/a decent cross into the box, but didn’t meet anyone and nothing particularly dangerous. i’d love to see him grab a goal.
PAOK fans are animals
Thanks for all the comments on Jozy. Stuck at work. Sound like Jozy playing well. Is Villareal looking the more dangerous side?
neither side looking particularly dangerous
watched the last 15 minutes of the half, and no, nothing dangerous anywhere. pretty sloppy game. kind of looks like a Columbus-Rapids game.
Marca saying that the VCF midfield has been awful…
They have. Turnover after turnover.
Ouch. That stings because it is true for last week. We’ll give you a better showing on Saturday. Be MASSIVE!
Is it the same Nilmar from Santos in Brazil?
He is Brazilian, but hasn’t played for Santos.
no it is but just want to follow minute by minute.
Neymar for santos
Soccernet’s gamecast hasn’t mentioned Altidore one time. Is he not involved
Nilmar with some great work on the left side, tries to find Jozy waiting in the box but his cross is deflected away and nothing more comes of it.
At the start of the half, Jozy fed Nilmar who then cut around a defender and fired a shot over the bar from outside the 18.
Nilmar and Jozy seem to be showing really good chemistry. Too bad they have to drop so far back into the midfield, due to their teams poor midfield play. They are creating stuff for themselves to far back to make it really dangerous. Jozy is looking good IMO.
Rossi looks set to come in… hopefully for Nilmar.
He hasn’t been making many dangerous runs this second half. I personally would like to see a little more hustle from him. He quits on the ball to much instead of pressuring the defense. The distribution from the midfield has been poor as well.
Also, he got the ball on the sideline a few minutes ago after a Villareal corner and he tried to take on a PAOK player but was dispossessed.
For Jozy’s sake I hope so, but if i was a true Villarreal fan i would want Nilmar to stay in.
I like the Rossi/Altidore pairing if it happens. I feel like they have good chemistry together
and it’s Jozy coming off
And that is all from Jose today.
Thank you. You guys should work for ESPN because their updates suck
Jozy out, Rossi in. Looks like i can go to lunch now.
Jozy is off for Rossi, damn. Good game by him though, he created a lot of chances for his teammates and also for himself.
Oh well. At least he got quality minutes today
Jozy just went off. He was decent. He didn’t screw up like some have criticized him for lately. He seemed to give up a bit once the ball was lost but 10mins ago he did track back like 15 yards to go after a ball he lost.
Sooner or later he will score. Don’t give up kid.
btw Villarreal have played like crap
Rossi comes in and immediately puts a defender on his rump on a 50-50 ball. I would like to see Jozy put that type of pressure on those defenders. Try to make something for himself. He can’t rely on people feeding him all the time.
Goal Jozy Altidore!!! Assisted by Freddy Adu.
One shot on goal for Villarreal so far.
He scored last week.
It looked like he was sorta limping as he walked off
Maybe i should have qualified that more… He created a lot of chances for chances…
Hard to be very dangerous with Villarreal’s midfield completely invisable.
Goal PAOK.
Thanks, I got the two names mixed up.
damn Jozy sucks man lol, I’ll trade 5 Jozys for one Rossi, even though I really hate that kid.
Ha, this is stupid but I chuckled.
Thanks
Kind of like when Jozy has played for the USMNT recently – created some chances for chances, without much support or service from his midfield.
I saw that a Carlos Ruiz started at strker for Aris Salonkia in its Euro League game. Is that our ex-MLS Little Fishy from Guatemala?
Yup. It’s the Sunuvabitcch
Who? Oh, you’re referring to _____. I’d trade 25 American-born, wantaway turncoats for 1 talented young striker of haitian descent.
But I’m only one man…
stevie g just posted a hat trick in 25 minutes. wow.