Wednesday, August 08, 2012

UEFA Champions League Qualifying: Bhoys, Yellow Canaries, Dinamo Zagreb, Anderlecht, FC Basel, Copenhagen Advance To Playoff Round

The third qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League concluded with twelve games contested on Wednesday.

At Dudelange, Luxembourg:

Ales Mertelj scored the only goal of the match in the 79th minute as NK Maribor defeated F91 Dudelange 1-0 on the road in game two and won their two-match series with the Luxembourgian club 5-1 on aggregate.

At Helsingborg, Sweden:

Thomas Sorum delivered a natural hat trick (43', 49', 68') as Helsingborg defeated visiting Slask Wroclaw 3-1 in game two and took our the Polish club 6-1 on aggregate.

At Baku, Azerbaijan:

With goals courtesy of Barak Badash (50') and Laszlo Lencse (90'+1), Ironi Kiryal Shmona gained a 2-2 game-two road draw with Neftchi Baku, good enough for the Israeli club who won their two-match series 6-2 on aggregate.

At Liberec, Czech Republic:

Pantelis Kapetanos (45'+1) and Modou Sougou (90'+4) scored the goals for CFR Cluj as the Romanian club down Slovan Liberec 2-1 in game two and won the series 3-1 on aggregate.

At Vilnius, Lithuania:

Six different goal scorers----Sacha Kljestan (6'), Dennis Praet (31'), Oleksandr Yakovenko (45'+3), Tom De Sutter (47'), Guillermo Mollins (62'), and Fernando Matos (87')----each tallied once as RSC Anderlecht destroyed FK Ekranas 6-0 on the road in game two and finished their 11-0 two-game aggregate annihilation of the Lithuanian club.

At Helsinki, Finland:

Joe Ledley (67') and Georgios Samaras (86') each delivered a goal as Celtic defeated HJK Helsinki 2-0 on the road in game two and finished off the Finnish club 4-1 on aggregate to advance to the playoff round.

At Basel, Switzerland:

David Degen scored the series-winning goal in the 75th minute while goalkeeper Yann Sommer saved Magne Hoseth's second-half stoppage-time penalty kick as FC Basel gained a 1-1 game-two home draw with Molde FK and won their two-match series with the Norwegian club 2-1 on aggregate.

At Piatra Neamt, Romania:

Ex-Liverpool star Dirk Kuyt scored twice (71', 76') as Fenerbahce overpowered home-standing FC Vaslui 4-1 on game one and won the two-match series 5-2 on aggregate.

At Bruges, Belgium:

After a scoreless game-one stalemate, Nicolai Jorgensen (61'), Christian Bolanos (78'), and Cesar Santin (90'+5) each tallied once as FC Copenhagen defeated Club Brugge on the road 3-2 in the second match and won the two-game series by that same score on aggregate.

At Zagreb, Croatia:

Domagoj Vida (16'), Fatos Beciraj (34'), Dure Cop (78'), and Luis Ibanez (87') each scored once as Dinamo Zagreb demolished visiting FC Sheriff 4-0 in game two and took out the Moldovan club 5-0 on aggregate for the series.

At Belgrade, Serbia:

Dosa Junior scored the only goal of the match in the 23rd minute as AEL Limassol picked up a second successive 1-0 victory over Partizan Belgrade, this time on the road, and eliminated the Serbian champions 2-0 on aggregate.

At Athens:

Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (51'), Charalampos Mavrias (75'), and Ibrahim Sissoko (83') each tallied once as Panathinaikos dominated visiting Motherwell 3-0 in game two and took out the overmatched Scottish club 5-0 on aggregate.

The winners all advanced to the Playoff Round in with Champions League group-stage berths at stake.

For the losers, it's not the end of their respective European campaigns, since they will take part in Europa League playoff-round action.

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