Football Update: UEFA Champions League Play offs round up and Preview of the Draw
It was a night of high octane action drama in the Champions League, as Tottenham Hotspurs earned the right to play in the group stages of the Champions league for the first time in over 50 years. Also joining Tottenham in the group stages will be MSK Zellina, FC Copenhagen, Auxerre and Ajax Amsterdam.
Ex Tottenham boss, Martin Jol saw de Godenzonen beat Dynamo Kiev 2-1 at the Amsterdam Arena last night to edge past the Ukrainians 3-2 on aggregate.
The Uruguayan sensation Luis Suarez opened the scoring for the hosts just before the breather and Mounir El Hamdaoui doubled the advantage with just 15 minutes remaining in the clock.
But Ex- Chelsea and AC Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko scored for the Groundhogs late in the game to set up a nervy final few moments for Ajax, as one more goal for Kiev would have been enough to sent them through, but it was not to be as Ajax held on to the lead and progress through.
Zenit St. Petersburg travelled to France to take on Auxerre but it took only 7 minutes for the hosts to wipe out the advantage as Cedric Hengbart opened the scoring on the night with a neat finish.
Ireneusz Jelen then compounded the misery of the Russians as he doubled the host’s advantage with a goal just after half time. In a frantic final 25 minutes of the game St Petersburg had Tomas Hubocan and Viacheslav Malafeev sent off as the game got physical when the Russians threw everything but the kitchen sink at the hosts.
In another match, FC Copenhagen beat Rosenborg by a solitary goal to reach the group phase of the Champions League on away goals rule. Solvi Ottesen scored the only goal of the night for Copenhagen.
Copenhagen were trailing 2-1 from the first leg but had the resolve to see out the match last night as a 33rd minute goal from Ottesen was enough to send the Danes through.
Over in Slovakia, MSK Zellina beat Sparta Prague by 1 goal to nil to accumulate a 3-0 win on aggregate to progress to the group stages of the Champions League.
While the comeback of all comebacks was in London, where Tottenham overturned a 3-2 first leg deficit to beat the Swiss Young Boys 4-0 on the night to barge into the Champions League proper for the first time since 1951
There was a time in this tie when the Swiss led the tie 3-0 but in the first game 2 late goals spared Tottenham’s blushes and they were emphatic last night as Peter Crouch grabbed a hattrick, while Defoe score the other for Spurs.
The 32 qualified teams will now go into 4 pots for the draw for the group phase, which will take place in Monaco on Friday.
Each pot will consist of 8 teams each with the pots being decided by UEFA Club Coefficient rankings.
One team from each pot will be placed in each of the 8 groups. The group stages of the Champions League will commence from September the 14th and will run to December 8th after which Champions League takes a two month break.
Six Clubs will be making their debuts in the Champions League: Bursaspor, Tottenham Hotspur, Hapoel Tel Aviv, FC Twente, Braga, and Zilina.
While it’s a pity to see one of the five clubs who wear UEFA Champions League Badge of Honour, missing from the group stages as Liverpool will only be playing in the Europa League.
Real Madrid, Ajax, AC Milan, Bayern Munich along with Liverpool are the 5 clubs who wear the coveted Badge of Honour.
The 4 Pots will be as follows:
Pot 1-Inter Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Olympique Lyonnais.
Pot 2-Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia, Olympique Marseille, Panathinaikos .
Pot 3- Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers, Ajax, Schalke 04, Basel, Braga, Copenhagen, Spartak Moscow.
Pot 4-Hapoel Tel Aviv, FC Twente, Rubin Kazan, Auxerre, CFR Cluj, Partizan, Zilina, Bursaspor .
Tags: