Roma, Valencia, Villarreal, PSV and Ajax all progressed, but Zenit St Petersburg and St Patrick's were eliminated.
Big names progress, but Zenit and St Patrick's are out
Roma, Valencia, Villarreal, PSV and Ajax all progressed in the Europa League, but Zenit St Petersburg and St Patrick's were eliminated.
Roma went into the second leg of their meeting with
MFK Kosice locked at 3-3 from the first leg, but roared into a 5-0 lead after just 18 minutes and eventually cruised through 10-4 on aggregate, with Francesco Totti scoring a hat-trick.
Miku bagged a treble for
Valencia as the Spanish side enjoyed a 4-1 home triumph against
Stabaek which completed a 7-1 success over their two meetings.
Villarreal thrashed
NAC Breda 6-1 on the night and 9-2 on aggregate, with all the home side's goals coming in the opening 61 minutes of the match.
PSV Eindhoven secured their second 1-0 success against Israeli outfit
Bnei Yehuda with Timmy Simons scoring the only goal from the penalty spot in the 25th minute.
Ajax already had one foot in the group stages after thrashing
Slovan Bratislava 5-1 first time around, with a 2-1 success in the second leg confirming their progress.
Zenit St Petersburg, who lifted the Uefa Cup in 2008, could not even reach the group phase of the new-look tournament as a 1-1 draw against
CS Nacional saw the Portuguese side hold on to an overall 5-4 advantage.
St Patrick's Athletic's bid to overcome a three-goal deficit against
Steaua Bucharest was always likely to prove a step too far, and the Romanian side won 2-1 on the night with two late goals to complete a 5-1 victory over the two legs.
Comeback
Dinamo Bucharest produced the comeback of the night as they overturned a 3-0 first leg deficit away from home against
Slovan Liberec.
Andrei Cristea bagged an early opener and Marius Niculae scored twice after the break to level the aggregate scores with the visitors then enjoying a memorable 9-8 triumph in the following penalty shoot-out.
Lille triumphed 4-2 against
Genk thanks to two goals from Vinicius de Melo to secure a 6-3 aggregate triumph. Fellow French side
Toulouse are also through, despite going down 1-0 at home to
Trabzonspor, with their 3-1 victory in Turkey enough to see them progress.
Genoa had a comfortable 3-1 lead over
Odense and a 1-1 draw away from home helped the Italian side progress without alarm.
Benfica were beaten 2-1 away by
Vorskla Poltava but still eased through following a 4-0 romp in the earlier home leg.
Athletic Bilbao endured a nervous evening in Norway as they drew 1-1 with
Tromso but edged through 4-3 on aggregate.
BATE Borisov, who were in the UEFA Champions League last term, had Sergei Sosnovski to thank for their success against
Litex Lovech as he scored in the 86th minute to take the match into extra time before finding the net again in the added period as the Belarus outfit eventually won 4-0 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate.
Partizan Belgrade won 2-0 away to
MSK Zilina to triumph 3-1 over the two legs, while
Sparta Prague saw off
NK Maribor as Bony Wilfried's third-minute strike secured a 1-0 success on the night and a 3-0 aggregate victory.
