That's all for today and a busy night of European football.

Thanks for joining us. Click below to read the match reports.

• Sparta Prague 1-5 Liverpool
• Roma 4-0 Brighton
• Benfica 2-2 Rangers
• Freiburg 1-0 West Ham
• Ajax 0-0 Aston Villa

Emlyn Begley
BBC Sport

Image source, Christian Kaspar-Bartke

West Ham fell to defeat at Freiburg in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

The Hammers beat their Bundesliga counterparts twice in the group stage and were looking fairly comfortable until Michael Gregoritsch pounced soon after coming off the bench.

The Austrian lost several defenders to tap in Roland Sallai's mis-hit shot across the penalty area nine minutes from time.

The Hammers thought they were going to get a penalty in injury time, but after a long Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check for a potential Noah Weisshaupt handball, it was not given.

David Moyes' side should have been ahead long before Freiburg's goal though.

Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta both missed the target from fine Mohammed Kudus crosses, and Bowen's curling effort from the corner of the box was well saved by Noah Atubolu.

This was only Freiburg's second win in 90 minutes in any competition in 2024.

West Ham must win next Thursday in London to have a chance of following on from their last two European runs.

West Ham United

West Ham captain Kurt Zouma refused to be drawn on the late penalty decision when he spoke to TNT Sports after the game.

"I don't know [if it was the right decision]. The decision took a bit of time and the referee took a lot of time. It is what it is. The game is over. I don't want to go back to it now."

On the match itself: "It was a tough game today, we didn't play well throughout the whole game. We didn't have many chances.

"There is another game next week and hopefully we can play better. There are many things [which could be to blame], we didn't start the game the right way, maybe physically but no reason. There are days like this in football."

The big talking point from West Ham's point of view is the visitors not being given an injury-time penalty in Germany.

The Hammers thought they should have been awarded a spotkick for a handball against Freiburg's Noah Weisshaupt.

Referee Alejandro Hernandez had other ideas after a long VAR check.

Former England striker Michael Owen and ex-Premier League midfielder Steve Sidwell - working as analysts for TNT Sports - believe the official might have judged Weisshaupt to have been pushed first by Tomas Soucek.

"My first reaction was that it was a penalty," said Sidwell. "The left elbow of Soucek maybe just nudges the player for him to raise his arm. That's I think it has been given.

"But his arm is in an abnormal position. For me it is a penalty."

Owen agreed the decision might have been based on Soucek's contact, but took issue with the lack of consistency with the handball rule.

"The hand is up and the ball strikes it. I don't like the handball rule full stop. Most people would have thought, even if they don't like the rule, but would have thought for consistency, it would have been a penalty."

Brighton & Hove Albion

Roberto De Zerbi acknowledged Brighton's 4-0 hammering at Roma was a reality check for his Europa League novices.

The Seagulls' adventure in Europe turned into a nightmare at Stadio Olimpico after they conceded twice in each half to lose heavily in the club's first ever European knockout tie.

"We played our game. We gave our best. Maybe our best now is this performance," De Zerbi admitted. "I think Roma is much better in terms of experience to play this type of game and we suffer a lot. Too much I think.

"We are not used to playing this competition and today we paid everything. We paid (for) a squad not so long, we paid to play away in this stadium, we paid with too many injured players and for us, it is the first time so we have to improve.

"We have to progress and if we want to compete in this level, from the owner to the coach to the players we have to progress to reach one level higher."

Aston Villa

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery knows his side survived a scare in their goalless draw at Ajax in their last-16 Europa Conference League first-leg tie.

Villa were second best throughout the night at the Johan Cruyff Arena but the Dutch giants, led by England international Jordan Henderson, could not make their advantage count as it ended 0-0.

Emery said: "It is always difficult to play away in Europe, here you see the atmosphere they have.

"It was a very high-level match, we are taking experiences in Europe and we can feel favourites but it's very difficult and if you're showing in other matches in Europa League or the Europa Conference League you can see some big surprises.

"I'm happy. We didn't play well, we didn't control the game like we prepared and like we usually do but I accept that as well."

Liverpool

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp praised Darwin Nunez's attitude after the striker scored twice in a comfortable 5-1 Europa League victory over Sparta Prague.

The Uruguay international took his tally for the season to 16 - just two behind Mohamed Salah, who had a goal disallowed by VAR on his return from injury.

After an up-and-down first season following his potential club-record move from Benfica, 24-year-old Nunez has found more consistency this season and, but for a touch more luck, would have been pushing Salah as leading scorer.

"He had absolutely more than (an) OK first season but he had to adapt, that's done, and he is settled in the middle of the team," said Klopp. "Wonderful guy, wonderful boy. He loves to play for this team together with these boys and has quality coming out of his ears, to be honest.

"It's like strikers are, they score and then they don't score. Is he at his absolute peak in general? Not now for us. But can he develop? Yes. Is he a threat all the time? Yes."

"We played badly today," says West Ham captain Kurt Zouma.

Fortunate for Hammers fans the club have another chance to put it right next week.

It's full time in Portugal and Rangers have held on to a 2-2 draw with Benfica.

It could have been even better having led twice, but they will fancy themselves in the second leg now. Reaction here.

Image source, .

Sporting Lisbon drew 1-1 at home against Atalanta on Wednesday.

Your European football fix is now over for another week with Liverpool being the only British side to win tonight.

Here's what happened in the Europa League in the 20:00 GMT games:

• Ex-Chelsea players Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic score as AC Milan beat Slavia Prague 4-2.
• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores two as Marseille win 4-0 against Villarreal.

Here is what happened in the later games in the Europa Conference League:

• Former Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi scored as Union SG were beaten 3-0 by Fenerbahce.
• Maccabi Haifa 3-4 Fiorentina.
• Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 PAOK.
• Servette 0-0 Viktoria Plzen.

"The handball law is an absolute mess," says ex-England striker Michael Owen on TNT Sports.

David Moyes is speaking to the officials, trying to get some information on why his side were not given an injury-time penalty.

Amid a hugely controversial finish to the match, Freiburg win it 1-0 to take a lead into the second leg next week at London Stadium.

Referee Alejandro Hernandez, having been advised to check a potential handball deep, deep into injury time, watches the incident again and again and again.

Eventually he says no penalty. David Moyes and West Ham are going to be absolutely furious.

Tomas Soucek was trying to help the ball on inside the penalty area, Noah Weisshaupt's arms were high, the ball hits one of them.

Still we wait. Four minutes since the incident. Penalty or not?

The referee goes to the monitor. West Ham's hopes are rising.

Noah Weisshaupt is the substitute whose arm was high when the ball hit it in the penalty area. We now wait for the decision. This could be a hugely dramatic late twist.

Kalvin Phillips blasts an effort goalwards as Freiburg struggle to deal with a throw-in.

West Ham may have a lifeline with VAR checking a potential handball. In the fifth minute of injury time. The arm of the defender was up high when the ball hit it.

Mohammed Kudus digs out a cross but, in a crowded penalty area, Konstantinos Mavropanos can only send the header well wide.