Stuttgart and Nottingham Forest advance

• AP

Fenerbahce on Thursday earned a rare 2-1 win in England, but were still knocked out of the UEFA Europa League by Nottingham Forest in the playoffs.

Forest entered the second leg with a healthy 3-0 lead from the opener in Istanbul — where Vitor Pereira made an impact in his first game in charge — and that proved enough to advance to the round-of-16 with a 4-2 aggregate score.

The result was a boost for Forest, struggling at 17th place in the Premier League, in their return to Europe after three decades.

They next face Real Betis Balompie or

Kerem Akturkoglu gave Fenerbahce a 1-0 first-half lead and sent goalkeeper Stefan Ortega the wrong way from the spot early in the second half with his second.

Fenerbahce had won only one of their previous 10 matches in England.

Second-half substitute Callum Hudson-Odoi calmed the nerves of the hosts by scoring in the 68th minute at the City Ground.

Nottingham Forest players were forced to dodge fireworks thrown onto the field by visiting Fenerbahce fans at the start of their second leg.

Moments after the match kicked off, there was a three-minute delay as sections of a 1,500-strong away end launched several fireworks into the Forest penalty area.

Like in the UEFA Champions League, the top eight finishers in the league phase advanced automatically to the last 16. The teams placed from ninth to 24th entered a two-leg playoff.

VfB Stuttgart advanced 4-2 overall after their second-leg 1-0 home loss to Celtic.

Stuttgart, who are fourth in the Bundesliga, easily won the first leg 4-1 in Glasgow, but found the second leg much harder.

Celtic restored some pride with Luke McCowan putting the visitors ahead in the opening minute of the match. After a first leg to forget for Martin O’Neill, in what was his 1,000th career game overall as manager, this was a morale-boosting performance ahead of Celtic’s visit to Rangers in the Scottish Premiership tomorrow.

Stuttgart are to play Braga or Porto next.

Substitute Nathan Ngoy struck nine minutes into extra-time as Lille OSC beat Red Star 2-0 for a 2-1 aggregate victory to set up a last-16 game against Aston Villa or Olympique Lyonnais.

Veteran striker Olivier Giroud scored early for Lille, which was enough to force extra-time in Belgrade.

The 39-year-old Giroud has rediscovered his scoring touch at the right time.

Giroud erased the 1-0 deficit from the opening leg in Lille, heading home from close range after meeting a cross from captain Benjamin Andre.

It was his fourth goal in the competition and came just days after he scored in a 1-0 victory against Angers SCO in Ligue 1. That was his first league goal since November last year.

Bologna again won 1-0 to seal a 2-0 aggregate victory against 10-man Brann, while RC Celta de Vigo completed a 3-1 aggregate win by beating PAOK 1-0.

KRC Genk found the back of the net twice in extra-time in a 3-3 second-leg thriller against 10-man Dinamo Zagreb to win 6-4 overall.

Panathinaikos prevailed 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out over Viktoria Plzen after a 2-2 draw in the first leg and 1-1 at the end of extra-time on Thursday for 3-3 overall. Andreas Tetteh had put the Greek club ahead from the edge of the area early in the Czech Republic city of Plzen. Karel Spacil headed in an equalizer in the second half, forcing extra-time, which was goalless.

In Budapest, Ferencvaros advanced 3-2 on aggregate after a 2-0 second-leg win over Ludogorets with first-half goals from Gabi Kanichowsky and Kristoffer Zachariassen.

The draw for the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals was to be held yesterday.

In the UEFA Conference League, ACF Fiorentina needed extra-time to eventually prevail after throwing away their 3-0 lead from the first leg against Jagiellonia Bialystok in the third-tier competition.

Bartosz Mazurek led the comeback for the visitors with a hat-trick to force extra-time, but substitute Nicolo Fagioli and an own-goal proved enough for the Italian team, despite Jagiellonia winning 4-2 on the night.

Jesus Imaz scored in the 118th minute to set up an exciting finish as two-time finalist Fiorentina advanced to the round of 16 with a 5-4 aggregate score.

Another favorite, Crystal Palace, joined the Italian club in the next round after beating Bosnian side Zrinjski Mostar 2-0 at home and a 3-1 aggregate victory for the unsettled Premier League club.

The others to advance all won their second-leg games. AZ beat Noah 4-0 (4-1 on aggregate); Lech Poznan won 1-0 against KuPS (3-0 aggregate); Sigma Olomouc won 2-1 against Lausanne-Sport (3-2 aggregate); Celje defeated Drita 3-2 (6-4 aggregate); Rijeka beat Omonia Nicosia 3-1 (4-1 aggregate); and Samsunspor routed Shkendija 4-0 (5-0 aggregate).

Additional reporting by AFP