Europa League — Aston Villa makes comeback by beating Salzburg 3-2; Antony shines in Betis’ victory

Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba’s first-ever goal for Aston Villa was an 87th-minute winner in a 3-2 comeback win over Salzburg to close the opening stages of the Europa League on Thursday.

19-year-old Jimoh-Aloba’s goal followed Tyrone Mings’ equalizer at Villa Park. Morgan Rogers sparked the comeback in the 64th after the visiting team had built a 2-0 lead following an own goal from Victor Lindelof and then Moussa Yeo’s goal.

However, Villa could not overtake Lyon atop the 36-team standings after the French team defeated 10-man PAOK 4-2 to remain ahead of Unai Emery’s team on goal difference. Both Lyon and Villa had already secured a place in the eighth finals in March.

Just like in the Champions League, the best eight players automatically advance to the last sixteen. The teams placed between ninth and twenty-fourth play a play-off over two games.

The rest of the top eight consists of: Midtjylland, third place, Real Betis, Porto, Braga, Freiburg and Roma.

Midtjylland, a Danish club, defeated Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 and moved to third place, two points behind Lyon and Villa.

In Seville, former Manchester United winger Antony scored and set up Abde Ezzalzouli’s goal in Real Betis’ 2-1 win over Feyenoord.

Porto rallied from a goal down to beat Rangers 3-1 to jump from ninth to fifth, Braga moved to sixth after a 0-0 draw at Go Ahead Eagles, and 10-man Freiburg dropped to ninth with a 1-0 defeat at Lille.

Jan Ziółkowski headed in the 80th minute equalizer for Roma in a 1-1 draw against Panathinaikos.

Celtic claimed one of the five play-off spots remaining on Thursday by beating Utrecht 4-2. The draw for the play-offs is on Friday.

The Scottish giants were 3-0 up at Celtic Park after the opening 20 minutes with Benjamin Nygren’s early goal, Nick Viergever’s own goal and Arne Engels’ penalty.

Igor Jesus scored twice for Nottingham Forest in a 4-0 win over Ferencváros.

The seven PAOK fans who died this week in a minibus accident in Romania on the way to a match between Lyon and their club were honored at stadiums in France and Greece.

Lyon expressed its “sincere condolences” to PAOK and supporters associations of rival Greek clubs Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Aris and others issued messages of unity and condolences.

A moment of silence was observed at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon – and in Athens, where Panathinaikos played Roma.

Players from Lille’s match against Freiburg also followed with applause for the victims, UEFA said.

Published on January 30, 2026