Di Maria hat-trick takes Juventus into Europa League last 16

Angel di Maria scored a hat-trick as Juventus reached the Europa League last 16 on Thursday with a 3-0 play-off second leg win over Nantes.

The result allowed the Italian giants to progress 4-1 on aggregate.

Argentine World Cup winner Di Maria opened the scoring after five minutes and then added a 20th-minute penalty.

Di Maria completed his hat-trick in the 78th minute, in a game where the French side had been reduced to 10 men after just a quarter of an hour when Nicolas Pallois was red-carded for handball.

Six-time champions Sevilla went down to a 2-0 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands but progressed 3-2 on aggregate.

Luuk de Jong and Fabio Silva hit late goals for the Dutch team who had Mauro Junior sent off in stoppage time.

Sporting Lisbon were also amongst the early winners, a 4-0 victory at Midtjylland in Denmark sealing a 5-1 victory.

AFP

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