After a 2-1 victory at Celtic Park, the SPL champions won 2-0 at the Sonera Stadium thanks to goals from Joe Ledley and Georgios Samaras in their third qualifying round tie..
The Wales international bundled Charlie Mulgrew's cross into the net the 66th minute before Samaras scored five minutes from the end to give Celtic a 4-1 aggregate win and only their second away victory in Europe in 34 attempts.
Midfielder Victor Wanyama was red-carded in the second-half after picking up the second of two yellow cards but that did not take away from the Hoops' win which would could have been more convincing had skipper Scott Brown, who passed a fitness test on his hip complaint before the game, not missed an early sitter before Samaras passed up on a decent chance moments later.
However, manager Neil Lennon will be delighted to take one step closer to the lucrative group stages of European football's elite club competition.
David Degen fired Basel through with a 2-1 aggregate victory over Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Molde after a tense tie.
The Swiss champions, who memorably qualified from last season's group stage at Manchester United's expense, led 1-0 from last week's first leg but were pegged back by Jo Inge Berget in the 32nd minute.
Degen found the net 15 minutes from time to see Heiko Vogel's side through, but goalkeeper Yann Sommer had to make an added-time penalty save from Magne Hoseth to avoid a dramatic twist.
FC Copenhagen eliminated Club Brugge 3-2 in the most dramatic of the ties.
After a goalless first leg, Brugge took a half-time lead at Jan Breydelstadion through Jordi. Nicolai Jogenson equalised in the 61st minute but Vadis Odjidja restored the Belgian side's lead five minutes later.
Christian Bolanos' leveller meant Copenhagen would go through and, with their hosts pushing for a late goal, it was instead the Danes who made it 3-2 in the 95th minute through Cesar Santin.
Fenerbahce were given a first-leg scare by Romanian side Vaslui, needing a last-minute equaliser to go into the second leg level at 1-1.
It was not plain sailing in the second leg, either, as after Marius Niculae cancelled out Caner Erkin's opener, they had to wait until the last 20 minutes before Dirk Kuyt scored twice and Moussa Sow's injury-time goal to make it 5-2 on aggregate.
Cypriot side AEL produced something of an upset with a 2-0 aggregate win over Partizan Belgrade despite playing more than an hour with ten men.
The Limassol outfit won 1-0 last week and replicated that scoreline through Dosa Junior's 23rd-minute goal, but they had to hang on after Jorge Lourenco collected his second booking five minutes later.
Anderlecht completed an 11-0 aggregate romp against ten-man Ekranas.
Sacha Kljestan's ninth-minute goal added to the Belgian champions' commanding 5-0 first-leg lead and Ekranas' troubles mounted when keeper Emilijus Zubas was sent off shortly before the half-hour mark.
Replacement Tadas Kauneckas saved Guillaume Gillet's penalty but was later beaten by Dennis Praet, Olexandr Yakovenko, Tom de Sutter, Guillermo Molins and Fernando.
Panathinaikos were untroubled as they sailed past Motherwell 5-0, goals from Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, Charalampos Mavrias and Ibrahim Sissoko adding to a two-goal first-leg lead.
There was a comfortable 6-1 success for Swedish champions Helsingborg against Slask Wroclaw, Thomas Sorum's hat-trick earning them a 3-1 second-leg win as Cristian Diaz replied for the Poles.
CFR Cluj scored in injury time in each half to beat Liberec 2-1 in the Czech Republic and go through 3-1 over two legs.
Pantelis Kapetanos scored on the stroke of half-time to add to their first-leg lead and, though Josef Sural hit back, Modou Sougou grabbed a 94th-minute clincher.
No comments:
Post a Comment