Europa League Round-Up: Spanish Dominance Set to End as Villarreal and Athletic Crash Out

The Europa League last-32 ties were wrapped up on Thursday night and Spain's hold on the tournament appears to have broken; with Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal being knocked out in the early kick-offs.

Spanish clubs have lifted the Europa League in four out of the last five seasons (including a hat-trick from Sevilla in the last three years), but hopes of such an impressive run continuing are now pinned on Celta Vigo (who kicked off at 8.05pm trailing 1-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk).

Having been hammered 4-0 by Roma at theEstadio de la Cerámica last week, Villarreal came away with a 1-0 win from the Stadio Olimpico, which was obviously not enough to progress.

Athletic Bilbao, who reached the 2012 final under Marcelo Bielsa, were also eliminated as they fell to a 2-0 defeat to APOEL Nicosia, losing 4-3 on aggregate.

Olympiacos had no such trouble in negotiating their passage through to the last-16 as they beat Osmanlispor FK 3-0 thanks to goals from Karim Ansarifard (2) and Tarik Elyounoussi.

Spain's grip on the Europa League coming to an end. Athletic, Villarreal & Celta all on verge of going out

Ajax, arguably one of the favourites left in the competition, edged past Legia Warsaw 1-0 with Nick Viergever's 49th-minute strike the only goal scross 180 minutes in that tie.

Besiktas ensured they did not emulate Fenerbahce's shock exit on Wednesday night as they won 2-1 at home to Hapoel Be'er Sheva to emerge 4-2 aggregate winners.

There was late drama in Russia, too, as Anderlecht scored in the 90th-minute to knock out Zenit St Petersburg. The Belgian side took the first-leg 2-0 but were heading out after Zenit roared into a 3-0 lead to complete an excellent comeback. With the Russian team on the verge of going through, Isaac Kiese Thelin scored to break Zenit hearts.

F/T - Zenit 3 -1 Anderlecht. Our @EuropaLeague campaign is over after Anderlecht score in the 90th minute #ZENAND #UEL pic.twitter.com/CktP05gSee