Europa League: Man City, PSV, Leverkusen win
Europa League: Man City, PSV, Leverkusen win
Mario Balotelli scored twice to lead City to a 3-0 win over Salzburg.

London: PSV Eindhoven, Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City were among seven sides to reach the knockout stages of the Europa League on Wednesday.

PSV Eindhoven came from a goal down to beat Sampdoria 2-1 with a last-minute winner by Ola Toivonen, while Bayer Leverkusen won 1-0 at Rosenborg to win Group B and advance ahead of the final round of pool matches later this month.

Sampdoria and fellow Italian side Juventus were both eliminated, the latter following a 1-1 draw with Lech Poznan that sent the Polish team through to the next round from Group A alongside Manchester City.

Mario Balotelli scored twice to lead City to a 3-0 win over Salzburg.

Young Boys beat Stuttgart 2-1 to advance alongside the already qualified German team, Metalist Kharkiv beat eliminated Debrecen 2-1 to go through and Sporting Lisbon earned a place with a 1-0 win over Lille.

Giampaolo Pazzini put Sampdoria in front with a header in the 39th but Toivonen hit back with two goals in the second half, with the Swedish forward's winner coming only a minute after Sampdoria forward Guido Marilungo was sent off for picking up a second yellow card.

The match was suspended for nine minutes during the first half due to a problem with the lights at Luigi Ferraris stadium.

Leverkusen is sure to top Group B after Sidney Sam's 35th-minute goal — a 20-meter (yard) shot — and could be joined in the next round by Aris following the Greek side's shock 3-2 win at defending champion Atletico Madrid.

Atletico, which beat Fulham 2-1 in last season's final, had rallied to lead through goals by star strikers Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero. But Sergio Koke equalized with a 51st-minute penalty and Nikos Lazaridis struck with nine minutes left to secure a first win in Spain for a Greek club.

Balotelli's double against injury-hit Salzburg and a goal by England winger Adam Johnson earned City progress and lifted some of the pressure on coach Roberto Mancini.

"It was tough," Johnson said. "In Europe, it's slower than the Premier League and that showed but we got the result we wanted."

Mancini was dissatisfied.

"My only disappointment tonight was we could have scored more goals in the first 20 to 25 minutes," Mancini said.

City next meets Juventus on Dec. 16, when Lech Poznan plays Salzburg.

Also Wednesday, already qualified Zenit St. Petersburg beat Anderlecht 3-1.

CSKA Moscow, BATE Borisov and FC Porto are also in the next round, while Spartak Moscow, FC Twente and Rangers will be among the eight sides to drop into the tournament from the Champions League.

The other six first-round groups play on Thursday.

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