The goals continued to flow for Manchester United's Zlatan Ibrahimovic and AS Roma's Edin Dzeko as they bagged hat-tricks to help their teams take commanding leads in the first legs of their Europa League last 32 ties on Thursday.

United swept aside St. Etienne 3-0 at Old Trafford and Roma made light work of last season's semifinalist Villarreal with a 4-0 win in Spain, leaving their sides with little work to do in next week's return encounters.

Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League campaign, however, got off to a frustrating start as they were beaten 1-0 at mid-table Belgian outfit Gent, while Olympique Lyonnais beat AZ Alkmaar 4-1 away and Fiorentina edged Borussia Moenchengladbach 1-0.