Europa League Qualifying

The third round of Europa League qualifying commenced on Thursday with 29 games.

At Zagreb, Croatia:

Vorskla Poltava gained a series-opening 0-0 road stalemate with Lokomotiva Zagreb.

At Sainte-Etienne, France:

The opening contest between Saint-Etienne and visiting AEK Athens ended in a 0-0 draw.

At Larnaca, Cyprus:

Andre Alves' goal in the 65th minute enabled AEK Larnaca to salvage a series-opening 1-1 draw with visiting Spartak Moscow.  Jano Ananidze scored for the Russian club in the 38th minute.

At Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Romania:

Nosa Emanuel Igiebor scored the winning goal in the 49th minute as Maccabi Tel Aviv knocked off Pandurii Targu Jiu 3-1 on the road in game one.

At Novi Sad, Serbia:

Evgen Budnik's equalizer in the 83rd minute carried Dinamo Minsk to a series-opening 1-1 road draw with Vojvodina.  Sinia Babic scored for the Serbian club in the 29th minute.

At Lubin, Poland:

Marc Dal Hende scored the winning goal in the 36th minute as SonderjyskE knocked off Zaglebie Lubin 2-1 on the road in the opening contest of their two-game series.


At Lucerne, Switzerland:

Domenico Berardi's own goal (42') could prove costly in the end as it allowed Sassuolo to gain a series-opening 1-1 road draw with FC Lucerne.  Marco Schneuwly scored for the hosts in the eighth minute.

At Prague, Czech Republic:

Rio Ave held hosts Slavia Prague to a series-opening 0-0 deadlock.

At Paola, Malta:

Andreas Granqvist (45'+1), Fyodor Smolov (PK-75'), and Ricardo Laborde (89') each produced a goal as FC Krasnodar will head back to Russia with a decided advantage after their 3-0 series-opening road domination of Birkirkara.

At Alkmaar, Netherlands:

Derrick Luckassen's goal in the 36th minute staked AZ Alkmaar to a 1-0 game-one home victory over PAS Giannini.

At Riga, Latvia:

Vitalijs Smirnovs' equalizer at 70 minutes enabled Jelgava to salvage a series-opening 1-1 draw with visiting Beitar Jerusalem.  Idan Vered scored for the Israeli club in the 25th minute.

At Vienna, Austria:

Robert Tambe scored the lone goal of Spartak Trnava's series-opening 1-0 triumph at Austria Vienna's expense in the 46th minute.

At Athens, Greece:

Rodrigo Moledo scored the only goal of the match in the 79th minute as Panathinaikos defeated visiting AIK Solna 1-0 in their series-opening match.

At Ankara, Turkey:

Osmanlispor, with Tiago Pinto's goal in the 74th minute making the difference, defeated visiting Nomme Kalju 1-0 in game one.

At Aberdeen, Scotland:

Jonathan Hayes' equalizer in the 88th minute lifted Aberdeen to a series-opening 1-1 home draw with NK Maribor.  Milivoje Novakovic scored in the 83rd minute for the Slovenian club.

At Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France:

Ryan Mendes' goal in the 47th minute carried LOSC Lille-Metropole to a 1-1 game-one home draw with Gabala.  Vitaliy Vernydub scored for the Azerbaijani club in the 13th minute.

At Oleksandria, Ukraine:

With second-half goals courtesy of Marko Cosic (53'), Ante Erceg (82'), and Franck Ohandza (90'), Hajduk Split found themselves with one foot in the playoff round following their series-opening 3-0 road domination of FC Oleksandriya.

At Berlin:

Vedad Ibisevic scored the lone goal of the game in the 28th minute as Hertha Berlin took game one of their series 1-0 over visiting Brondby.

At Istanbul, Turkey:

Istanbul Basaksehir and visiting Rijeka battled to a series-opening 0-0 stalemate.

At Almelo, Netherlands:

Gege's second-half stoppage-time equalizer (90'+1) lifted Arouca to a series-opening 1-1 road draw with Heracles Almelo.  Paul Gladon scored for the hosts at 53 minutes.

At Zhodina, Belarus:

Rapid Vienna gained a series-opening 0-0 road stalemate with Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino.

At Genk, Belgium:

Leon Bailey scored the only goal of KRC Genk's series-opening 1-0 victory over visiting Cork City in the 31st minute.

At Skopje, Macedonia:

Stenio Junior (69') and Ferhan Hasani (75') provided the goal power in Shkendija's series-opening 2-0 victory over visiting Mlada Boleslav.

At Ljubljana, Slovenia:

Matic Crnic scored twice (PK-11', 49') as Domzale defeated visiting West Ham United 2-1 in game one.  Mark Noble's successful penalty kick in the 18th minute kept the Hammers alive in the series. 

At Felcsut, Hungary:

Filip Novak's goal in the 55th minute lifted FC Midtjylland to a series-opening 1-0 road victory at Videoton's expense.

At Gothenburg, Sweden:

Alfredo Morelos scored the winning goal in the 75th minute as HJK Helsinki knocked off IFK Gothenburg 2-1 on the road in match one of their two-game series.

At Maria Enzerdorf, Austria:

Egan Vuch scored twice (12', 69') as Slovan Liberec knocked off Admira Wacker Modling 2-1 on the road in the opening match of their two-game series.

At Ghent, Belgium:

Kalifa Coulibaly scored twice (37', 50') as KAA Gent destroyed visiting Viitorul Constanta of Romania 5-0 on the opening contest of their two-game series, which has all but placed the Belgian club in the playoff round with a Europa League group-stage berth at stake.

At St. Gallen, Switzerland:

Haris Tabakovic (10') and Numa Lavanchy (90'+3) each scored once as Grasshoppers took the opening contest of their series with Apollon Limasol 2-1.  Just three days after his 30th birthday, Abraham Guie Gneki scored in the 76th minute to keep the visiting Cypriot club alive in the series.