
Hoffenheim are eliminated from the Europa League despite a win at the end. Lazio Roma finished the league phase in 1st place.
Although Hoffenheim mastered the difficult task in Anderlecht with flying colors and won 4:3, the fact that they had previously gone five games in a row without a win in the Europa League weighed too heavily on the Bundesliga club. Robin Hranac (41), Tom Bischof (54) and David Mokwa (59) and Adam Hlozek (65) turned a 0:1 (18) into a 4:1. Anderlecht missed out on direct qualification for the round of 16 (Top 8) due to their second defeat in a row.
AS Roma and FC Porto, two big names who were still in contention to progress, made it through to the play-offs. The Italians defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in front of their home crowd thanks to goals from Angelino (44') and Eldor Shomurodov (69'). Coach Claudio Ranieri, who was brought out of retirement in mid-November, seems to have found the right words, as the Romans are doing much better under him than before.
Eintracht, for whom the Swiss Aurèle Amenda was only a substitute, were able to cope with their second defeat in the current European Cup campaign, as Frankfurt finished the league phase in 5th place, which puts them in the round of 16. FC Porto won 1:0 at Maccabi Tel Aviv, with Nico Gonzalez scoring the only goal of the game with a header in the 58th minute.
Although Lazio Roma lost for the first time this season in the Europa League with a 1-0 defeat at Braga, the Italians still defended first place. This was thanks to their superior goal difference compared to Athletic Bilbao, who defeated Viktoria Pilsen 3:1 at home. Third place went to Manchester United, who were relegated from the Premier League and celebrated their fifth consecutive win in this competition with a 2-0 victory at FCSB Bucharest, the only team to remain unbeaten.