Key events
TWO GOALS! Slavia Prague 0-2 Milan (2-6 agg)
Two goals in three minutes! First Pulisic scores for the third straight game before Loftus-Cheek, who has been completely reborn in Milan, puts the tie beyond doubt. Loftus-Cheek scored in the fist leg as well, remember.
GOAL! Villarreal 1-0 Marseille (Capoue, 1-4 agg)
Surely not. They couldnât, could they? Capoue, formerly of Watford, heads past Lopez, after a cross from Femenia, formerly of Watford. Game on? Not quite, but not far off.
Rangers 0-0 Benfica (2-2 agg)
35 min: Lundstram is a lucky boy! He needlessly gives the ball away in midfield and suddenly is four on four. Lundstram then fails to track Di Maria, who races to the byline, cuts the ball tantalisingly across the six-yard line, but a combination of Goldson and Tavernier keep Rafa Silva out at the far post!
GOAL! West Ham 2-0 Freiburg (Bowen, 2-1 agg)
32 min: West Ham take the lead in the tie! Antonio dummies a pass and Bowen races onto it behind. He shrugs off a challenge, steadies himself on the edge of the area, and arrows a low shot into the bottom right corner beyond Atubolu! Great finish, and a lovely little assist from Antonio.
Slavia Prague 0-0 Milan (2-4 agg)
28 min: Leao goes through on goal, but Stanek makes a fine stop with his feet. You feel that Milan need just one more goal to rubber stamp this tie. That said, the red card has really taken the bite out of the home crowd.
Villarreal 0-0 Marseille (0-4 agg)
24 min: Marseille nearly extend their lead in Spain! Femenia makes a hash of a clearance and Sarr races through but Jorgensen races out of goal and just beats the Marseille man to the ball!
I should mention that Sorloth has missed two golden chances for Villarreal already. The aggregate score could be quite different.
RED CARD FOR SLAVIA PRAGUE’S HOLES!
Slavia Prague 0-0 Milan (2-4 agg)
20 min: The hostsâ unlikely task just become the near impossible. Holes sees red after catching Calabria on the ankle. The referee needed VAR to confirm the decision, but a red card it is.
Rangers 0-0 Benfica (2-2 agg)
15 min: Wright does really well on the right wing, taking on three Benfica defenders to win a corner. Headed clear.
I should mention that there was this tifo at Ibrox before kick-off. A reminder that the Europa League final this year is in Dublin. It is not impossible that they could face Liverpool in the Irish capital, a potential prospect that Uefa have described as âextremely challengingâ.
Rangers 0-0 Benfica (2-2 agg)
12 min: Fredrik Aursnes, who is basically a Norwegian regen of a late career Raul Meireles (not just in his appearance but also in the way that he plays), shoots from range for Benfica. Butland, who was snubbed from Southgateâs England squad today, gets down to his right.
West Ham 1-0 Freiburg (1-1 agg)
10 min: Freiburg so nearly hit back immediately. Some slick passing releases Sallai, and the striker works a yard of space in the box but shoots two yards wide. The Hungarian should have done better!
GOAL! West Ham 1-0 Freiburg (1-1 agg)
Weâre all square in the tie! West Ham score from that third corner, with Soucek flicking it on at the near post. Paqueta, completely unmarked taps it in. The London Stadium erupts!
West Ham 0-0 Freiburg (0-1 agg)
6 min: Kudus nearly finds space for a spectacular overhead but has to settle for a corner. Freiburg manage to clear two Cresswell deliveries from under their crossbar but West Ham will have a third corner â¦
Rangers 0-0 Benfica (2-2 agg)
2 min: Lively start at Ibrox. David Neres, who was terrible in the first leg for Benfica crosses from the left but Souttar stands strong in the middle.
Peeeeeeeeeeeeep! And weâre off in the four Europa League matches.
The teams are out. Angel Di Maria looks particularly stonefaced in Glasgow, as does Rangersâ Fabio Silva, who played briefly for Benfica in his youth, but then made his name at Porto. The Portuguese was excellent in the first leg, I thought.
This is a fascinating West Ham squad at the moment. In Paqueta, Bowen, Kudus, Alvarez they have some elite talent, and yet it still feels very old school West Ham. And Iâm not talking about Bobby Moore. More Kevin Nolan. Not that I donât like Kevin Nolan. But you know what I mean.
This is worth a read. Aubemeyang is on the Marseille bench tonight, with the French side 4-0 up on Villarreal from the first leg.
Ibrox is going to be absolutely rocking tonight. The team is on a rich run of form, Benfica is a pearler of a European tie and there will also be tributes to Thomas McAllister, a fan who lost his life in Lisbon after the first leg.
Team news
Villarreal v Marseille
Villarreal: Reina, Femenia, Bailly, Mandi, Cuenca, Coquelin, Capoue, Parejo, Goncalo Guedes, Gerard, Sorloth.
Subs: Mosquera, Comesana, Jorgensen, Trigueros, Morales, Baena, Altimira, Akhomach.
Marseille: Pau Lopez, Meite, Mbemba, Balerdi, Merlin, Clauss, Kondogbia, Ounahi, Veretout, Ndiaye, Sarr.
Subs: Aubameyang, Harit, Moumbagna, Correa, Blanco, Soglo, Tunkadi, Luis Henrique.
West Ham v Freiburg
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Mavropanos, Zouma, Cresswell, Soucek, Alvarez, Kudus, Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Antonio.
Subs: Johnson, Ward-Prowse, Phillips, Ings, Ogbonna, Areola, Aguerd, Earthy, Casey, Mubama, Orford, Knightbridge.
Freiburg: Atubolu, Sildialli, Ginter, Gulde, Gunter, Hofler, Doan, Eggestein, Holer, Grifo, Sallai.
Subs: Lienhart, Szalai, Keitel, Kubler, Adamu, Muller, Muslija, Philipp, Uphoff, Makengo, Rohl, Gregoritsch.
Rangers v Benfica
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Yilmaz, Diomande, Lundstram, Scott Wright, Lawrence, Silva, Dessers.
Subs: Cantwell, Matondo, Roofe, Davies, McCrorie, Barisic, King, Raskin, McCausland, Yfeko, Fraser, McKinnon.
Benfica: Trubin, Bah, Silva, Otamendi, Aursnes, Neves, Florentino, Di Maria, Rafa Silva, Neres, Marcos Leonardo.
Subs: Fernandez, Morato, Arthur Cabral, Kokcu, Tengstedt, Joao Mario, Soares, Rollheiser, Araujo, Kokubo, Gouveia.
Slavia Prague v Milan
Slavia Prague: Stanek, Vlcek, Ogbu, Zima, Zmrzly, Holes, Dorley, Doudera, Provod, Wallem, Chytil.
Subs: Tijani, Zafeiris, Dominik Pech, van Buren, Jurecka, Sevcik, Schranz, Mandous, Tomic, Sirotnik, Jurasek, Konecny.
Milan: Maignan, Calabria, Gabbia, Tomori, Hernandez, Adli, Musah, Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao, Giroud.
Subs: Bennacer, Reijnders, Jovic, Okafor, Kalulu Kyatengwa, Chukwueze, Kjaer, Thiaw, Terracciano, Sportiello, Nava.
Preamble
Hello world! Thursday is the new Wednesday, havenât you heard? An evening for the football hipsters.
What, youâve never heard of new Benfica wonderkid João Neves?! Ha! Heâs got higher-waisted shorts than Javier Zanetti and Scott Parker, an engine like a young James Milner and the vision of a teenage Rui Costa. Stick that up your Champions League and smoke it.
The point is, there are dozens of little storylines here. Some well-thumbed, some waiting to be explored. We have eight second legs on offer in the early kick-offs (5.45pm GMT), and eight matches in the lates (8pm GMT, which will be brought to you later by Rob Smyth).
The 5.45pm (GMT) kick offs:
Rangers v Benfica (2-2 agg)
West Ham v Freiburg (0-1 agg)
Slavia Prague v Milan (2-4 agg)
Villarreal v Marseille (0-4 agg)
