Valencia fought back from a three-goal first-leg deficit Thursday to beat Basel 5-0 and qualify for the Europa League semifinal, while competition favourite Juventus advanced after a tense 2-1 win at home to Lyon. Pablo Alcacer scored a hat trick in Valencia, with the third coming in extra time after Basel had seen Marcelo Diaz and Gaston Sauro sent off. Eduardo Vargas and Juan Bernat also netted as Valencia became the first side to come back from a 3-0 first leg defeat and progress in the Europa League. "Id like to thank my team-mates, without whom I wouldnt have scored this hat trick tonight," Alacer said. "The fans were with us from the very first minute tonight; they were fantastic and we dedicate this win to them." In Turin, Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio scored either side of Jimmy Briands leveler for Lyon, handing Juventus a 3-1 aggregate win. Marchisios strike was later awarded as an own goal by UEFA, after it took a decisive deflection off Samuel Umtiti. "We hope that the whole of Italy is happy with our result," Juventus coach Antonio Conte said. "In Italy youre either a Juventus fan or against Juventus. And those who are against us dont care a lot about the UEFA ranking and only hope that we are knocked out. "We are proud and happy. Three years ago we didnt even qualify for the Europa League, in the last two years we have done a lot and won a lot and this year we are protagonists too. The fans shouldnt forget that." Benfica, beaten by Chelsea in last seasons final, could be back in the showpiece match next month after beating AZ Alkmaar 2-0 to seal a 3-0 aggregate victory, while 10-man Sevilla defeated Porto 4-1 to qualify 4-2 on aggregate. Basel had seemed certain to progress after a comfortable win in Switzerland, but two goals shortly before halftime gave Valencia hope. First Alcacer chested down Joao Pereiras ball over the defence and fired it into the bottom left corner, before Vargas headed home Dani Parejos corner. The two goalscorers combined in the 70th minute with a delightful cut back from Vargas to the onrushing Alcacer, who lashed the ball into the top left corner to level the tie. Basel goalkeeper Yann Sommer kept his side in the tie with a number of stunning saves, while counterpart Vicente Guaita saw little of the ball. Valencia almost won it on the stroke of full time but Sommer did brilliantly to deny Alcacer and Vargas slid the rebound off the base of the right post. Basel lost hope of scoring a crucial goal when Diaz was shown a straight red card for a needless kick at Ricardo Costa and Sauro followed him five minutes later after two yellow cards in a minute. Alcacer completed his hat trick when he tapped home Pablo Piattis cross seven minutes from time and Bernat sealed the result five minutes later. Juventus is favourite to win the competition, with the final in its own stadium on May 14, and it looked dangerous from the start as Carlos Tevez threatened to break his four-year goal drought in Europe with a shot which flew narrowly over the crossbar. The Italian side did take an early lead when free-kick specialist Pirlo curled an effort into the left of goal from just outside the area. Lyon was denied what looked like a clear penalty when Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci blocked Alexandre Lacazettes cross with his hand but the referee waved play on. Lyon levelled shortly afterwards when a corner came out to Arnold Mvuemba, who sent a looping cross into the area for Briand to outjump Marchisio and head in off the base of the far post. Tevez thought he had finally broken his drought when he headed home Pirlos cross on the hour mark but it was ruled out for offside. Lyon had looked the more dangerous but Juventus took the lead in the 68th minute as Marchisios shot took a huge deflection off Umtiti to completely wrongfoot Anthony Lopes. Sevilla was trailing 1-0 from the first leg but levelled the tie in the fifth minute after Danilo brought down Carlos Bacca and the Colombia striker drilled the resulting penalty into the bottom right corner. Vitolo and another strike from Bacca gave Sevilla a comfortable advantage before defender Coke was sent off for two bookings less than 10 minutes into the second half. However, substitute Kevin Gameiro sealed Sevillas progress when he fired home a rebound in the 79th minute before Ricardo Quaresma notched a stunning consolation for Porto in stoppage time. In Portugal, Rodrigo scored in either half to keep Benefica on course for a second consecutive final. College Jerseys From China . 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PETERSBURG, Fla.OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma City Thunder showed Wednesday night that they dont always need to have Kevin Durant score in the fourth quarter to win a close game. Durant scored just two of his 26 points in the final 12 minutes and his teammates -- including Derek Fisher, Jeremy Lamb and Reggie Jackson -- stood in the gap, helping Oklahoma City pull away for a 106-97 win over a Minnesota Timberwolves team without Kevin Love and two other starters. Jackson added 20 points (seven in the fourth quarter) and nine assists for the Thunder, who won for the 12th time in their last 13 games and became the NBAs first team this season to 40 wins. The Thunder won for the ninth straight time at home against Minnesota, which entered the game 3 1/2 games behind Dallas in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot from the Western Conference. The Thunder have won eight straight home games and are 15-1 this season against Western Conference foes at Chesapeake Energy Arena. "We just focus on doing our job every night and living with the results and theyve been pretty good for a while now," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. "We have expectations to a standard that we want to play at and I think weve done a good job with that going into the All-Star break. "This is funky time for a lot of teams because a lot of players are probably thinking about the break and what theyre doing, getting their plans together. Weve never been a team that has done that and I dont anticipate that happening this year." Love, an All-Star forward, sat out with a stiff neck after taking a hard fall Tuesday in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Center Nikola Pecovic (ankle injury) and forward Corey Brewer (family leave) also didnt play for the Timberwolves. Minnesota coach Rick Adelman said he was proud of the way his undermanned team fought. "I think it shows that these guys compete," Adelman said. "They werent afraid to go play them with three starters out. It gave the other guys an opportunity to play. I couldnt be prouder of the way they competed. We just ran a little bit out of gas at the end." With Minnesota devoting its defensive energies to stopping Durant, other Thunder players made the key plays in the final minutes. The score was tied in the closing seconds of the third quarter when Fisher attempted a 3-pointer from the corner that appeared to be long, but Minnesotas Gorgui Dieng accidentally tapped it into the basket to give the Thunder an 80-77 lead. Fisher finished with 13 points, his second-best offensive outing of the season. "Ive never seen that before," Durant said of the goaltending call on Dieng. "That guy is a rookie . so Im sure hes going to learn from that one. BBut that gave us a boost and at the start of the fourth those guys came out and played extremely hard and thats what we needed.dddddddddddd" Lamb opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer to push Oklahoma Citys lead to six points. The Thunder finished off the 16-4 run with a dunk by Lamb with 7:17 left that made it 93-81, but Oklahoma City suddenly went cold from the field. Durant was called for a technical foul with 4:39 left after protesting a no-call, but Ricky Rubio missed the ensuing free throw, leaving the score at 93-86. Minnesota pulled within 95-89 after a 3-pointer by Robbie Hummel with 3:45 left, but the Timberwolves came no closer. "We came into the game aggressive and we fought all the way through, but in the last five minutes, I think we missed too many free throws and easy shots while they made shots at the end," said Rubio, who had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Thabo Sefolosha, who missed his first seven 3-point attempts, made one from the corner with 1:43 left to extend the Thunders lead to 100-90 and Minnesota came no closer than nine points the rest of the way. "Theyre NBA players, too," Durant said of his teammates. "Its not like Ive been scoring every point in the fourth. We play off each other. Guys hit big shots and we got stops. . We play a team game here." Durant, who also had nine rebounds and seven assists, continued his strong play against the Timberwolves. He had a triple-double in a home win over the Timberwolves on Dec. 1 and scored 48 points in a win at Minnesota on Jan. 4 before his outburst Wednesday. The Timberwolves led by as many as six points in the second quarter, but Oklahoma City took a 56-54 lead after Durant swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Durant had 16 points, six rebounds and five assists by halftime. Dante Cunningham added 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting for Minnesota. Serge Ibaka had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Thunder. NOTES: Brewer didnt travel with the team following the birth of his son on Tuesday. The Timberwolves say hes expected to return for Fridays game at New Orleans. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute replaced Brewer in the starting lineup. ... Durant was the Western Conference player of the month for January. He averaged 35.9 points per game while shooting 54.9 per cent during the month, leading Oklahoma City to a 10-game winning streak. He scored 30 or more points in 12 straight games. ... Olympic gold-medal winning gymnasts Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci, who live in nearby Norman, attended the game. ... Hummel saw his first action since Jan. 6 at Philadelphia. He played 17 minutes and scored five points. .. Oklahoma City C Kendrick Perkins matched his season high with 12 rebounds. ' ' '