Athletic seal spot in Europa League round of 32

Matchday 5 of the Europa League group stage was a bittersweet experience where Spanish interests are concerned. While Athletic Club overcame US Sassuolo 3-2 to book their ticket to the last 32, RC Celta and Villarreal CF were respectively held to draws by Standard Liege and FC Zurich and so will head into the final round of fixtures with their hopes in the balance.

First to enter the fray were Celta and Villarreal, neither of whom got the rub of the green in their games. The Galicians dominated and led for the lion's share of their encounter after in-form Iago Aspas opened the scoring on eight minutes, only for the visitors from Liege to stun the Balaidos crowd by grabbing a late equaliser through Kostas Laifis. It was a similar story for the Yellow Submarine, who went ahead through Bruno Soriano's bullet header but were powerless to prevent Roberto Rodriguez levelling from the penalty spot in the dying stages.

The highlight of the matchday for the LaLiga clubs came at San Mames, where Athletic produced a stirring comeback to defeat Sassuolo 3-2 and make sure that they will be in the hat when the round-of-32 draw is made. The Serie A outfit broke the deadlock early on through Mikel Balenziaga's own goal, but Raul Garcia and Aritz Aduriz turned the tide in the Basque club's favour. Iñigo Lekue made it 3-1 with 10 minutes to go and although Antonino Ragusa reduced the deficit shortly afterwards, Ernesto Valverde's troops held firm to secure three points and their place in the knockout stages.