Nottingham Forest and Stuttgart take 3-goal leads into return playoffs in the Europa League

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NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — Nottingham Forest and Stuttgart looked in control of their Europa League playoffs and close to reaching the round of 16 on Thursday.

Both sides took home a three-goal advantage from the first legs last week.

Vítor Pereira made an impact in his first game in charge, leading Nottingham to a 3-0 victory at Fenerbahçe.

While the English club is struggling at 17th place in the Premier League, it will be favored to advance at the City Ground. Nottingham returned to Europe after three decades this season and has not conceded a goal in its last three home games in the European second-tier.

Fenerbahçe has managed to win only one of its last 10 games in England.

Stuttgart beat Celtic 4-1 in front of packed Celtic Park on a night to forget for caretaker boss Martin O’Neill, who didn’t have much to celebrate in his 1,000th career game as a manager. O'Neill said Celtic was not ready to give up.

“We want to go there and compete,” he said. “You don’t want to throw things away, so we’ll go and compete and have a look at it.”

Host Genk has its sights on the next round after leading Dinamo Zagreb 3-1, and so does Bologna, which plays at home and is 1-0 up against Norwegian side Brann.

Celta holds a 2-1 lead over PAOK and Lille is trailing Red Star 1-0 ahead of their game in Belgrade.

In the third-tier Conference League, Crystal Palace has work to do at home after it was held to 1-1 by Zrinjski Mostar in Bosnia.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer