Europa League: Watkins earns Villa win at Lille, Bologna and Roma draw

Aston Villa came away from Lille with a 1-0 win thanks to Ollie Watkins' goal in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday, while Bologna and AS Roma played out a 1-1 draw in the all-Italian clash.

Porto won 2-1 at VfB Stuttgart and Panathinaikos beat Real Betis thanks to a late penalty after playing the final half hour with 10 men.

Watkins netted his first European goal of the season and Villa take a slender lead back home for next Thursday's second leg.

In Italy, Bologna went in front five minutes after the break when Jonathan Rowe made a mazy run into the box before laying the ball off to Federico Bernardeschi who whipped a first-time shot in off the far post.

Donyell Malen hit the post for Roma minutes later, and it was his poked pass which set up Lorenzo Pellegrini for the 71st-minute equaliser, with the substitute firing into an empty net.

Malen had a deflected shot come off the post and Roma's Martin Vitik saw a header from a free kick hit the crossbar as neither side could find a winner.

Elsewhere Porto took the lead through Terem Moffi in the 21st minute, Moffi playing a neat one-two with Borja Sainz before rifling his shot into the corner of the net.

Six minutes later 18-year-old Rodrigo Mora doubled the lead, leaping to volley home Zaidu Sanusi's cross from the left.

Stuttgart pulled one back five minutes from the break, Deniz Undav capitalising on a deflected pass with a half-volleyed shot on the turn.

Angelo Stiller thought he had levelled for the hosts with 20 minutes left but the goal was disallowed for offside.

Panathinaikos went down to 10 men with Anass Zaroury picking up a second yellow card and their keeper Alban Lafont kept Betis at bay with a number of fine saves before the hosts netted the winner with two minutes left.

Diego Llorente was sent off after earning a second booking for a foul on Karol Swiderski and Vicente Taborda made no mistake from the penalty spot.

In Thursday's other games, Nottingham Forest fell to a 1-0 home defeat to FC Midtjylland in horrible weather conditions, while Olympique Lyonnais snatched a late 1-1 draw away to 10-man Celta Vigo.

Robbie Keane's Ferencvaros beat Braga 2-0 and Genk had a 1-0 home win over Freiburg.