Champions League round-up

BATE and Anorthosis make it through

Last updated: 28th August 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Champions League round-up

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BATE Borisov booked their place in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League after a 1-1 draw with Levski Sofia in the second leg of their third qualifying round.

Belarusian champions BATE took a 1-0 lead into the home leg and they made a fine start as Sergey Sosnovskiy put them ahead 14 minutes in.

Vladimir Gadzhev levelled on 38 minutes to give Levski a lifeline.

BATE were reduced to ten-men shortly before the break when Gennady Bliznuk was sent-off for a second bookable offence, but they held on for the whole of the second half to become the first ever Belarus side to make the group stages.

Cypriot champions Anorthosis Famagusta, like BATE, are the first ever side from their country to make it through to the group stages after they sealed a 3-1 aggregate win over Olympiakos.

Anorthosis took a three-goal lead into the second leg in Athens and Temuri Ketsbaia's men did their job in fine style as they limited Olympiakos to just one-goal which came from Fernando Belluschi on 54 minutes.

Danish champions AaB Aalborg dispatched of FBK Kaunas - who defeated Rangers in the previous round - to progress to the group stages.

The Danes were strong favourites as they were taking a 2-0 lead into the second leg in Lithuania and they booked their place in the next round with another two-goal success giving them a 4-0 aggregate win.

FBK's hopes of overturning the two-goal deficit suffered a blow on the half-hour when Mindaugas Grigalevicius was dismissed.

Then just after the hour the home side were down to nine-men when Linas Pilibaitis also saw red.

FBK could do little with nine-men and AaB sealed their place in the final round with two late goals from Kasper Risgaard.

Dynamo Kiev eased into the group stages with a 4-1 win over Spartak Moscow which gave them a commanding 8-2 aggregate victory.

There was never much doubt that the Ukrainian giants would progress after their win in Moscow, but they made sure of their passage with another fine display.

They were 2-0 up at the interval thanks to goals from Oleksandr Aliev (4) and Ismael Bangoura (24).

Artem Dzjuba (47) pulled one back just after the break for Spartak, but that was mere consolation as Artem Milevskiy added (49 & 78) two more to seal the emphatic win for Dynamo.

Shakhtar Donetsk made it two out of two for Ukraine as they followed Dynamo into the group stages with a comfortable 5-1 aggregate win over Dinamo Zagreb.

Shakhtar took a 2-0 lead into the tie in Croatia and they added to that just before the break when Luiz Adriano pounced.

Bosko Balaban levelled (57) on the evening, but just minutes later Shakhtar were back ahead through Brandao.

Willian made it three, as he fired home on 70 minutes to seal the win.

1 in, 1 out for Turkey

1986 European champions Steaua Bucharest booked their place in the group stages after a 1-0 win over Turkish giants Galatasaray.

The tie was delicately poised after a 2-2 draw in the opening clash in Istanbul - but it was the Romanians who came through thanks to Banel Nicolita's strike just before the hour.

While Gala bowed out, their city-rivals Fenerbahce - who also drew 2-2 in the first-leg, faired better as they secured a 2-1 win over Partizan Belgrade which gave them a 4-3 aggregate victory.

Semih Senturk put Fener ahead on the half-hour and they doubled their lead on the hour through Brazilian star Alex.

Zoran Tosic gave Partizan (76) some hope, but Fener held out to book their place in the next round.

Atletico Madrid showed their style as they crushed Schalke 4-0 at the Vicente Calderon and book their place in the group stages.

The Bundesliga outfit came into the match with a one-goal advantage after winning the first-leg 1-0 - but it was a different story in the Spanish capital as Atletico cruised through.

The tie was levelled on 22 minutes when Argentine starlet Sergio Aguero pounced.

Diego Forlan (54) then put Atletico ahead for the first time in the tie, before late goals from Luis Garcia (82) and Maxi Rodriguez (90 pen) secured the win.

Schalke also finished the match with ten-men as Christian Pander was dismissed late on.

Swiss champions Basel overcame Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes 2-1 to seal victory.

The first leg had ended goalless, but the goals were soon flying in at St Jakob Park, with Valentin Stocker putting the home side ahead after just 11 minutes, but their lead lasted just a matter of moments as Joao Paulo Fajardo fired home a penalty to level matters.

Basel knew they needed a goal if they wanted to stay in contention and that duly arrived just before the hour when Eren Derdiyok pounced to seal their passage.

A Mamadou Niang double for Marseille sealed their place in the group stages as they defeated Brann 2-1 on the evening at the Stade Velodrome, giving them a 3-1 aggregate success.

The Norwegian champions pushed looking for the leveller, but it was Niang who opened the scoring on 65 minutes.

Brann had some renewed hope when they levelled through Kristjan Orn Sigurdsson.

But Niang was on hand to fire home the winner in injury time.

Finally, Fiorentina progressed against Slavia Prague after a goalless draw in the Czech capital.

La Viola had a 2-0 lead from the first-leg and made sure they progressed with a professional away display.