After the last games in the group stage of the Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday, two big England clubs finished the competition as the last one in their groups: Manchester United and Newcastle. Tonight, English clubs were three out of three in the Europa League. Liverpool lost in Belgium in the earlier fixture but still managed to qualify for the later stage as the first in the group, and West Ham, along with Brighton, followed the Reds in the evening games. The winners of last year’s Conference League managed a comfortable win over Freiburg in London (2-0) to secure the top spot, while Brighton did the same against Marseille (1-0).Top of Group A 🤩 pic.twitter.com/cQsjDobdof— West Ham United (@WestHam) December 14, 2023 Since the beginning of November, the Hammers played ten games in all competition and lost only two times, the last one being the 5-0 thrashing from Fulham last week, but that didn’t show that tonight. Affected by the sickness bug, the Hammers changed the team a bit as Konstantinos Mavropanos, Emerson and Edson Alvarez replaced Kurt Zouma, Aaron Cresswell and Pablo Fornals. And it was Alvarez who scored one of two goals, which effectively ended the game after only 42 minutes. Mohammed Kudus added the first after 14 minutes and the Germans offered absolutely nothing this night.It was much more interesting in the south of England, where Brighton also needed a win over in-form Marseille to top the group. The French giants won four games in a row prior to this match, scoring 13 goals across that period, but that streak came to an end in England. Truth to be said, the hosts were more dominant and kept possession, but the visitors can only blame themselves for not scoring at least one goal. Clauss and Harit both hit the woodwork in the 15th and 59th minute when the score was still 0-0. And the punishment came in the 88th minute, when Joao Pedro scored the winning goal, sending home fans into a trance.UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE – ROUND 6ThursdayLASK – Toulouse 1-2 (0-0)/Ljubicic 61 – Dallinga 54, Suazo 83/St.Gilloise – Liverpool 2-1 (2-1)/Amoura 32, Puertas 43 – Quansah 39/Panathinaikos – Maccabi Haifav 1-2 (0-1)/Ionnaidis 82 – David 20, Chery 74/Rennes – Villareal 2-3 (1-1)/Assingon 37, Blas 79 – Moreno 36, Akhomach 62, Parejo 80/Roma – Sheriff Tiraspol 3-0 (2-0)/Lukaku 11, Bellotti 32, Pisilli 89/Slavia Praha – Servette 4-0 (4-0)/Assingon 37, Blas 79 – Moreno 36, Akhomach 62, Parejo 80/Leverkusen – Molde 5-1 (3-0)/Schick 6, Tapsoba 22, Ellingsen 25 (og), Hložek 60, Mbamba 70 – Kitolano 75/Qarabag – Hacken 2-1 (2-0)/Andrade 1, Benzia 45+3 – Hyseinov 90+1 (og)Olympiakos – TSC Backa Topola 5-2 (3-0)/El Kaabi 21, Podence 40, 43, Ilic 47 (og), El Arabi 67 – Djakovac 49, Ćirković 60/West Ham – Freiburg 2-0 (2-0)/Kudus 14, Alvarez 42/Ajax – AEK 3-1 (2-1)/Akpom 5, 56, Taylor 20 – Garcia 11/Brighton – Olympique Marseille 1-0 (0-0)/Joao Pedro 88/Aris Limmasol – Sparta Praha 0-3 (0-3)/Kuchta 4, Birmancevic 11, 45/Betis – Rangers 2-2 (2-2)/Miranda 14, Perez 37 – Sima 10, Dessers 20/Rakow – Atalanta 0-3 (0-2)/Muriel 14, 72, Bonifanti 26/Sporting – Sturm 1-0 (1-0)/Gyokeres 39, Inacio 60, 70/
