DUNDALK MAY HAVE lost a second successive group match with Zenit St Petersburg tonight, but they remain in pole position to qualify from their group.
Zenit’s victory tonight means they will progress as group winners regardless of what happens in the final two rounds of matches, as they sit on 12 points.
However, the battle for second place remains very much open, after Maccabi and AZ drew 0-0 in the other group match tonight.
The Lilywhites’ superior head-to-head record means they currently sit second, with Maccabi in third despite having identical points and goal difference to the Irish side.
Despite failing to pick up a win in the group thus far, AZ Alkmaar trail both Dundalk and Maccabi Tel-Aviv by two points.
Dundalk will consequently be assured qualification (and a substantial €750,000 cash boost) if they win their final two games at home to AZ and away against Maccabi.
The only possible disadvantage for the Irish side is that AZ and Maccabi both get a chance to play a Zenit side with nothing other than pride to play for, as they have already secured qualification.
Europa League results tonight:
Group A
Fenerbahce (TUR) 2 (Sow 2, Lens 59) Manchester United (ENG) 1 (Rooney 89)
Zoryha Luhansk (UKR) 1 (Rafael Forster 44) Feyenoord (NED) 1 (Jorgensen 15)
Group B
APOEL (CYP) 1 (Sotiriou 69) Young Boys (SUI) 0
FC Astana (KAZ) 1 (Despotovic 8) Olympiakos (GRE) 1 (Seba 30)
Group C
Qabala (AZE) 1 (R Gurbanov 39) Saint-Etienne (FRA) 2 (Tannane 45+1, Beric 53)
Anderlecht (BEL) 6 (Stanciu 9, 41, Tielemans 62, Teodorczyk 89, 90+4-pen, Bruno 90+2) Mainz 05 (GER) 1 (De Blasis 15)
Group D
Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR) 0 AZ Alkmaar (NED) 0
Zenit (RUS) 2 (Giuliano 42, 78) Dundalk (IRL) 1 (Horgan 52)
Group E
Astra Giurgiu (ROU) 1 (Stan 19) Viktoria Plzen (CZE) 1 (Krmencik 25)
Austria Vienna (AUT) 2 (Kayode 2, A Gruenwald 89) AS Roma (ITA) 4 (Dzeko 5, 65, De Rossi 18, Nainggolan 78)
Group F
Athletic Bilbao (ESP) 5 (Aduriz 8, 24-pen, 44-pen, 74, 90+4-pen) Genk (BEL) 3 (Bailey 28, Ndidi 51, Susic 80)
Sassuolo (ITA) 2 (Defrel 34, Pellegrini 45+3) Rapid Vienna (AUT) 2 (Jelic 86, Kvilitaia 90)
Group G
Ajax (NED) 3 (Dolberg 41, Ziyech 68, Younes 71) Celta Vigo (ESP) 2 (Guidetti 79, Aspas 86)
Panathinaikos (GRE) 0 Standard Liege (BEL) 3 (Cisse 62, Belfodil 76, 90+3)
Group H
Gent (BEL) 3 (K Coulibaly 1, Perbet 83, Milicevic 89) Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) 5 (Marlos 36-pen, Taison 41, Stepanenko 45+3, Fred 68, Ferreyra 87)
Braga (POR) 3 (Velazquez 34, Wilson Eduardo 45+1, Ricardo Horta 90+7) Konyaspor (TUR) 1 (Rangelov 30)
Group I
Schalke 04 (GER) 2 (Junior Caicara 25, Bentaleb 28) Krasnodar (RUS) 0
Nice (FRA) 0 Salzburg (AUT) 2 (Hwang 72, 73)
Group J
Fiorentina (ITA) 3 (Ilicic 30-pen, Kalinic 43, Cristoforo 73) Slovan Liberec (CZE) 0
PAOK (GRE) 0 Qarabag (AZE) 1 (Michel 69)
Group K
Sparta Prague (CZE) 2 (Bitton 23-og, Lafata 38) Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR) 0
Southampton (ENG) 2 (Van Dijk 64, Nagatomo 70-og) Inter Milan (ITA) 1 (Icardi 33)
Group L
FC Zurich (SUI) 0 Steaua Bucharest (ROM) 0
Villarreal (ESP) 1 (Hernandez 48) Osmanlispor (TUR) 2 (Webo 8, Rusescu 75)
Additional reporting by AFP
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