Fulham overturned a three-goal aggregate deficit to beat Juventus 4-1 and reach the quarterfinals of the Europa League on Thursday, and David Villa’s hat-trick helped Valencia advance after a 4-4 draw at Werder Bremen.
Fernando Torres scored twice as Liverpool beat Lille 3-0 and Benfica scored a last-minute winner at Marseille to win 2-1 and also join Atletico Madrid, Hamburg, Wolfsburg and Standard Liege in Friday’s draw.
Sergio Aguero’s two goals in a 2-2 draw with Sporting Lisbon put Atletico through on away goals, and Hamburg made it 6-5 on aggregate despite losing 4-3 at Anderlecht.
A high-scoring night in the last 16 of European football’s second-tier competition brought some dramatic and surprising results.
Juventus’ David Trezeguet scored in the second minute at Craven Cottage to open up a big advantage for the Italian team, which won the first leg 3-1 in Turin.
But Bobby Zamora equalized on the night and, after Juve defender Fabio Cannavaro had been sent off in the 28th minute, two goals by Zoltan Gera opened a 3-1 lead for the home team and put the sides level at 4-4 overall.
With extra time looming, Fulham’s Clint Dempsey collected the ball outside the area and turned to lob a 20-meter (yard) shot over the goalkeeper and inside the far post.
“Nine times out of 10 it won’t make it, but you’ve got to take a risk and fortunately enough it worked out tonight,” Dempsey said of his goal. “We conceded early in the game but showed a lot of heart and a lot of character to fight back, and now we’re through to the next round.”
The five goals at Fulham were beaten by eight in Bremen.
The two sides started level at 1-1 from the first leg, but Valencia led 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 with Juan Mata’s goal adding to Villa’s three.
But Bremen never gave in with Hugo Almeida, Torsten Frings, Marko Marin and Claudio Pizarro finding the net for the hosts.
A seven-goal thriller in Brussels ended with another team scoring four times yet going out.
Hamburg was already 3-1 up when Jerome Boateng increased the lead in the 42nd minute.
But Romelu Lukaku, Matias Suarez, Lucas Biglia and Mbark Boussoufa all scored for Anderlecht for a 4-2 lead on the night — only for Mladen Petric to add a third for Hamburg as the Bundesliga side, which will host the May 12 final, got through.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard’s early penalty wiped out Lille’s 1-0 first-leg lead before Torres struck twice.
“It was a super performance and we deserved to go through,” Gerrard said. “It was the perfect start for us. The fans were superb. The aim was to get three goals because we knew they were dangerous and were capable of scoring.
“The reaction (since the first-leg defeat) over the last two games has been superb. It was vital we didn’t let the game go to extra time tonight because of the (Premier League) game we’ve got on Sunday (against Manchester United).”
Benfica’s Maxi Pereira equalized following Mamadou Niang’s goal for Marseille and the game appeared headed for extra time at 2-2. But Brazilian striker Alan Kardec’s angled shot beat the goalkeeper for Benfica’s 100th league and cup goal of the season.
Marseille had substitute Hatem Ben Arfa sent off in the final minute.
Already 3-1 up from the away leg in Athens, Standard Liege beat Panathinaikos 1-0 after a solo goal from Dieudonne Mbokani.
Defending German champion Wolfsburg beat Russia’s Rubin Kazan 2-1 after Christian Gentner scored in the 29th minute of extra time to advance 3-2 on aggregate.
