UEFA Champions League Qualifying

The third round of UEFA Champions League qualifying continued on Wednesday with the opening match of each of the 12 remaining two-game series.

At Aktobe, Kazakhstan:

Valeri Korobkin (58') and Robert Arzumanyan (88') each scored once as FC Aktobe salvaged a series-opening 2-2 home draw with Steaua Bucharest.  Claudiu Keseru (44') and Andrei Prepelita (79') delivered the goals for the visiting Romanian club. 

At Baku, Azerbaijan:

Danilo Dias (2') and Reynaldo dos Santos Silva (86') each tallied once as FK Qarabag took the opening match of their two-game series with FC Red Bull Salzburg 2-1 on the road, despite finishing the game with only nine men.  Jonathan Soriano Casas kept the Austrian club (who finished with ten men) alive in the series with his road goal in the 77th minute.

At Helsinki, Finland:

Tomas De Vincenti (71') and Cillian Sheridan (74') each scored a second-half goal three minutes apart as APOEL FC erased a two-goal deficit to gain a series-opening 2-2 draw with HJK Helsinki.  Demba Savage scored both goals (11', PK-45'+1) for the hosts.

At Larnaca, Cyprus:

Lukasz Gikiewicz scored the only  goal of the match in the 84th minute as AEL Limassol took the opening match of their series with Zenit Saint Petersburg 1-0 at home.

At Kiev, Ukraine:

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and visiting FC Copenhagen battled to a series-opening 0-0 stalemate, in a match that was originally set for Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, but was moved to the Ukrainian capital because of ongoing pro-Russian protests in Ukraine.

At Zurich, Switzerland:

Sebtastien Corchia (29') and Ryan Mendes (40') delivered the scoring as LOSC Lille Metropole took control of their series with Grasshoppers following their series-opening 2-0 road victory.

At Razgrad, Bulgaria:

PFC Ludogorets Razgrad were held to a series-opening 0-0 stalemate with visiting Partizan Belgrade.

At Rotterdam, Netherlands:

Mustaka Pektemek (13') and Kerim Koyunlu (71') each scored once as Beskitas held off Feyenoord Rotterdam 2-1 on the road in the opening game of their two-match series.

At Liege, Belgium:

Panathinaikos held hosts Standard Liege to a series-opening 0-0 deadlock.

At Aalborg, Denmark:

Marcelo Brozovic scored the only goal of the match in the 29th minute as Dinamo Zagreb topped AaB Aalborg 1-0 in the opening contest of their two-game series.

At Maribor, Slovenia:

Damjan Bohar scored the only goal of the match deep into second-half stoppage time (90'+5) as NK Maribor took the opening contest of their series with Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 at home.

At Warsaw, Poland:

Miroslav Radovic scored twice (10', 36') as Legia Warsaw dominated visiting Celtic 4-1 in the opening match of their two-game series.