Playoff Round: Second Leg Results

By: Dan | August 27th, 2009

After Tuesday and Wednesday we knew that Anderlecht, Celtic, FC Copenhagen, Levski Sofia, Panathinaikos, Red Bull Salzburg, Sporting Lisbon, Sheriff, Timisoara, and Ventspils would be in the Europa League group stage. Of course, today, there was the little matter of determining which of the clubs that have been trying to reach the Europa League group stages all along would end up there.

PAOK 0 – Heerenveen 0 (PAOK 1 – Heerenveen 1)
Dinamo Zagreb 0 – Hearts 2 (Dinamo Zagreb 4 – Hearts 2)
Werder Bremen 2 – Akotbe 0 (Werder Bremen 8 – Akotbe 3)
Everton 1 – Sigma Olomouc 1 (Everton 5 – Sigma Olomouc 1)
BATE 4 – Litex Lovech 0 (aet) (BATE 4 – Litex Lovech 1)
NAC Breda 1 – Villarreal 6 (NAC Breda 2 – Villarreal 9)
Lech Poznan 0 – Club Brugge 1 (Lech Poznan 1 – Club Brugge 1) *Club Brugge advance on penalties
Fulham 0 – Akmar Perm 1 (Fulham 3 – Amkar Perm 2)
Galatasaray 1 – Levadia 1 (Galatasaray 6 – Levadia 1)
FK Teplice 1 – Hapoel Tel Aviv 1 (FK Teplice 2 – Hapoel Tel Aviv 3)
Metalurh Donetsk 2 – Austria Vienna 3 (aet) (Metalurh Donetsk 4 – Austria Vienna 5)
FC Twente 0 – Qarabag 0 (FC Twente 3 – Qarabag 1)
AS Roma 7 – MFK Kosice 1 (AS Roma 10 – MFK Kosice 4)
Dinamo Moscow 1 - CSKA Sofia 2 (Dinamo Moscow 1 – CSKA Sofia 2)
Racing Genk 2 – Lille OSC 4 (Racing Genk 3 – Lille OSC 6)
PSV Eindhoven 1 – Bnei Yehuda 0 (PSV Eindhoven 2 – Bnei Yehuda 0)
Lazio 0 – Elfsborg 1 (Lazio 3 – Elfsborg 1)
Trabzonspor 1 – Toulouse 0 (Trabzonspor 2 – Toulouse 3)
Partizan Belgrade 2 – MSK Zilina 0 (Partizan Belgrade 3 – MSK Zilina 1)
FK Baku 1 – Basel 5 (FK Baku 2 – Basel 8)
Ajax Amsterdam 2 – Slovan Bratislava 1 (Ajax Amsterdam 7 – Slovan Bratislava 1)
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 – Sivasspor 0 (Shakhtar Donetsk 5 – Sivasspor 0)
Brøndby 1 – Hertha Berlin 3 (Brøndby 3 – Hertha Berlin 4)
Athletic Bilbao 1 – Tromsø 1 (Athletic Bilbao 4 – Tromsø 3)
FK Sarajevo 1 – CFR Cluj 2 (FK Sarajevo 2 – CFR Cluj 3)
Rapid Vienna 1 – Aston Villa 2 (Rapid Vienna 2 – Aston Villa 2)
Steaua Bucharest 2 – St. Patrick’s 1 (Steaua Bucharest 5 – St. Patrick’s 1)
Sparta Prague 1 – NK Maribor 0 (Sparta Prague 3 – NK Maribor 0)
Zenit St. Petersburg 1 – CD Nacional 1 (Zenit St. Petersburg 4 – CD Nacional 5)
Genoa 1 – Odense BK 1 (Genoa 4 – Odense BK 2)
Dinamo Bucharest 3 – Slovan Liberec 0 (Dinamo Bucharest 3 – Slovan Liberec 3) * **Dinamo Bucharest advance on penalties
Guingamp 1 – Hamburg SV 3 (Guingamp 2 – Hamburg SV 8)
FC Sion 2 – Fenerbahce 2 (FC Sion 2 – Fenerbahce 4)
Sturm Graz 1 – Metalist Kharkiv 0 (Sturm Graz 2 – Metalist Kharkiv 1)
Slavia Prague 1 – Red Star Belgrade 2 (Slavia Prague 4 – Red Star Belgrade 2)
Benfica 1 – Vorskla Poltava 2 (Benfica 5 – Vorskla Poltava 2)
Vaslui 0 – AEK Athens 3 (Vaslui 2 – AEK Athens 4)
Stabæk 1 – Valencia 4 (Stabæk 1 – Valencia 7)

*Slovan Liberec were awarded a 3-0 first leg victory because of crowd violence.

Austrian clubs had an outstanding day of results. Aston Villa, Metalist Kharkiv, and Metalurh Donetsk were dumped out by their Austrian opponents, which were Rapid Vienna, Sturm Graz, and Austria Vienna, respectively. Unless I’m overlooking something, this is probably the most noteworthy achievement by an Austrian club in Europe since Salzburg reached the 1994 UEFA Cup Final. In times when smaller leagues are usually left to reminisce about past glories, this is a refreshing turn of events. Time to break out the Ultravox and/or Falco and celebrate.

Hertha succeeded in sending me, and probably a few others, into fits of despair before deciding that scoring a goal was not necessarily a quantum mystery that required the combined efforts of Stephen Hawking and Carlos Castenada to unravel. They overcame Brøndby, barely, 4-3 on aggregate.

Most of the big teams involved, Everton, Benfica, Villarreal, Valenica, Genoa, Hamburg, and Werder Bremen, for example, had decisive advantages from the first leg to see out. One that didn’t, Roma, might as well have, as they went up by three goals in eight minutes to start off another 7-1 second leg victory.

A couple of ties ended in penalty shootouts. Club Brugge restored a measure of pride for Belgian football (besides Anderlecht’s result against Lyon, cup winners Genk were soundly beaten by Lille) by knocking out Lech Poznan. The other shootout result must be causing some red faces at UEFA headquarters. Dinamo Bucharest, who in my opinion were very fortunate not to be expelled from the competition, made the most of their second chance. They reversed the committee mandated 3-0 home defeat before moving on in the shootout.

The draw for the group stage of the competition will take place tomorrow.