THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

English sides Liverpool and Tottenham are through to the knockout stage of the Europa League after beating Udinese and Panathinaikos respectively on Thursday.

Steaua Bucharest, Stuttgart and FC Basel claimed the remaining berths in the last 32 to be played in February.

In Italy, Jordan Henderson scored midway through the first half to help Liverpool to a 1-0 win, and avenging the 3-2 loss to Udinese at Anfield in October.

"(Henderson) is a great lad and works hard and has come in over the last month and made a good contribution to the team," Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers said. "It was a very good finish and he was unfortunate not to get a second goal as the keeper made a wonderful save."

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Europa League highlights: To watch highlights from all of Thursday’s Europa League matches, CLICK HERE

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When Young Boys of Switzerland beat already-qualified Anzhi Makhachkala of Russa 3-1, Liverpool won Group A. All three teams finished on 10 points, but Liverpool had the best head-to-head record, followed by Anzhi.

Stuttgart advanced despite an embarrassing 1-0 defeat at home to Molde. It was runner-up to Group E winner Steaua Bucharest after the Romanian side drew 1-1 at Copenhagen. Stuttgart edged Copenhagen on head-to-head.

Udinese had a couple of decent chances before Liverpool took the lead in the 23rd minute with its first real opportunity. Luis Suarez headed on a corner and Suso passed it back for Henderson to rifle in through a crowd.

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Daniele Padelli pulled off several fantastic saves — denying Henderson and Suarez — to keep qualification still in question for Liverpool, which knew it had to at least match Young Boys’ result.

Udinese’s Giovanni Pasquale was sent off late on for a second bookable offence.

It almost ended badly for Liverpool in stoppage time as Antonio Di Natale sent a shot skimming over the crossbar with the last kick of the game.

"It was very close," Rodgers said. "Hopefully it is a sign we have a little bit of luck going our way because maybe a couple of months back that would have gone in and we would be out of the competition."

In Switzerland, Gonzalo Zarate gave Young Boys the lead in the 38th when his initial shot ricocheted around the area and back to him to slot home from a tight angle.

Anzhi Makhachkala levelled in first-half stoppage time with a controversial equalizer. Young Boys called loudly for offside but Odil Ahmedov appeared to be level as he received the ball, turned and fired in.

Moreno Costanzo doubled Young Boys’ lead eight minutes after the break after Anzhi failed to deal with a cross.

Anzhi striker Lacina Traore was sent off 20 minutes from time for a second bookable offence before Alexander Gonzalez added a third for the home side in stoppage time.

Lazio finished as Group J winners after a comprehensive 4-1 win over Maribor. The Italian side progressed with Tottenham, which won 3-1.

Emmanuel Adebayor gave Spurs a 29th-minute lead as he beat the offside trap before firing into the bottom right corner. But Zeca headed Panathinaikos level nine minutes into the second half.

Tottenham restored its lead when Clint Dempsey’s header hit the underside of the crossbar and went in off Panathinaikos goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis.

Jermain Defoe sealed the match.

"When you play with good players they will always create chances for the forwards to score," Defoe said. "It’s been good – not just me and Ade (Adebayor) – I think everyone played their part. Hopefully we can keep it going – it was a good victory."

In the tight Group E, Steaua needed only a point to advance and was reduced to 10 men at the start of the second half when Cristian Tanase was sent off for a second yellow card.

Raul Rusescu gave it the lead with a stunning shot from outside the area which took a slight deflection as it curled into the right side of the goal.

Copenhagen levelled three minutes from time through Igor Vetokele, but it was too little too late.

At Stuttgart, Davy Claude Angan ran from inside his own half to score the only goal in first-half stoppage time for Norway’s Molde.

FC Basel went through after a goalless draw at already-qualified Genk.

It means Friday’s postponed match between Videoton and Sporting Lisbon was rendered meaningless. The match was initially delayed shortly before kickoff as groundstaff struggled to drain the waterlogged pitch, but with rain still heavy it was decided to postpone the match.

Elsewhere, competition top-scorer Edinson Cavani scored his seventh in Napoli’s 3-1 loss at home to PSV Eindhoven. Tim Matavz netted a hat trick to inflict Napoli’s first home defeat in European competition in 18 years.

Unfurled in a populated section of seats inside Lokomotiv Stadium was an interesting banner by Anzhi supporters, depicting Guus Hiddink on horseback leading the cavalry, cloaked in armour and charging into battle with Samuel Eto’o and Yuri Zhirkov on his flanks, and the rest of the squad closely following.

It was an elaborate piece of artistry by the adopted home side for Thursday’s Europa League affair against Liverpool.

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Europa League highlights: To watch match highlights from all of Thursday’s UEFA Europa League games, CLICK HERE

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The atmosphere was rather boisterous from a good number of travelling Anzhi supporters, doing their best to give off the feeling of a home match for the team in yellow, chanting and banging drums for 90 minutes, while jeering the visitors whenever they had possession. The electronic advertising boards helped promote the message, displaying the slogan "Anzhi is a place of peace". That notion is a bit premature considering UEFA deemed Makhachkala unsafe for European competition.

Surprisingly, a small contingent of Reds supporters were seated relatively close to opposing fans. The arrival of Liverpool to the area made this a big ticket match for locals, though large sections of the stadium bizarrely were left unoccupied.

Brendan Rodgers rebuffed claims that he was taking a risk in fielding such a young side in Moscow, averaging just under 24 years in age. This weekend’s match against Chelsea was the defining reason for the manager making seven changes from the previous Europa League game at Anfield two weeks prior. Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Daniel Agger stayed behind on Merseyside, and others who failed to make the trip were Rahim Sterling, Nuri Sahin and Joe Allen.

A couple of Scouse-born academy graduates were listed on Rodgers’ team sheet, as 18 year-old Adam Morgan made his second start, leading the front-line, while 19 year-old Conor Coady was handed his first start for the club. Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Joe Cole were inserted into the lineup for experience, given the opportunity to parlay a solid performance into Premier League minutes, and prove worthy of Rodgers’ selection moving forward.

Rodgers decided to tinker with his usual 4-3-3 formation, electing to play 3-5-2 with three centre-backs, led by veteran Jamie Carragher, with John Flanagan and Stewart Downing in support on the flanks. It turned out to be another risk that ended up falling flat.

Anzhi earned their fifth clean sheet from five home matches, beating Liverpool 1-0 and giving their manager a fantastic birthday gift, as Hiddink turned 66 on Thursday. The victory was well-deserved, as the Reds struggled offensively and failed to create a decent scoring chance all game. Rodgers put his trust in Cole to run the attack, hoping the midfielder would rise to the challenge. Unfortunately for the 31 year-old, who was also celebrating his birthday, his performance was well-below standards.

Cole is obviously never going to regain his best form, lacking pace and confidence, and the once budding superstar looks set to be shown the door in January. Though Cole was by far the worst of the lot, his disastrous performance was just the tip of the iceberg. Henderson was practically invisible for 90 minutes, and when he did appear, his finish in the final third of the pitch left Liverpool fans at a loss for words, missing horribly on two separate occasions late in the second half.

Adding to the misery in Moscow, Downing once again did very little to merit a regular place in the squad, failing to maintain his defensive responsibilities, but more importantly seemingly having lost the ability to properly execute a cross and pick out a teammate, though he never had a target to aim at in this match, Downing was unable to guide his cross over the first defender, a common trend in his short Liverpool career. It was another discouraging performance.

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Lacina Traore’s match winner, scored right before the half-time whistle, highlighted the growing concerns coming out of the Reds camp: plenty of possession, no finish in the final third, and a defensive mistake forcing them to chase a result.

Brad Jones had another solid outing, with two quality saves and generally making the right decisions in his ball distribution, but the Aussie goalkeeper was left stranded in no-man’s land on Traore’s lob goal after Sebastian Coates over-committed on his marker. The partnership of Carragher and Coates was a disaster on defence; the experienced Scouse defender lacks the pace and match-fitness to compensate for mistakes made by the inexperienced Uruguayan defender. Andre Wisdom was the lone bright spot of the trio of centre-backs.

It’s difficult to point the finger at Rodgers for leaving out his best players; the squad is relatively thin, leaving him little choice but to rely on a collection of youngsters on the roster. The Premier League is priority number one, and if Liverpool ends up winning at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, his decision will be applauded. Had Rodgers decided to field some of his regulars in Moscow, all the talk would focus on player burn out, and his over-reliance of Suarez and Gerrard. It’s not an ideal situation.

Liverpool did show some life once Suso entered the match on the hour mark, the Spaniard made an immediate impact, showing tremendous creativity while in possession by holding the ball in the midfield and allow his teammates the time needed to get into attacking positions, but it came all too late.

With the win, Anzhi leapfrog Liverpool for first spot in Group A with two games remaining. The loss was the Reds first in 22 European matches and their first away defeat in the group stages
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