Scottish soccer enjoyed a perfect night on Wednesday as Glasgow rivals Rangers and Celtic reached the main phase of the lucrative Champions League.
Rangers won 2-1 at FC Copenhagen, advancing 3-2 on aggregate in the third round, second-leg qualifying match. Celtic won at home 1-0 over Hungary's MKT to go through 5-0 on aggregate.
The draw for the Champions League is today in Monte Carlo, Monaco, which begins a long journey that ends with the European champion being crowned in May.
Reaching the big stage of the Champions League -- Europe's No. 1 club competition -- is worth at least US$15 million, although Rangers officials said qualifying was worth about ?18 million (US$29 million) to the debt-ridden club.
Several other big-name European teams cashed in including Spain's Celta Vigo, Turkish side Galatasaray, Italy's Lazio, former champion Marseille, four-time European champion Ajax and Partizan Belgrade.
On Tuesday, four other clubs reached the main phase: Sparta Prague, England's Chelsea, Anderlecht of Belgium and Spain's Deportivo La Coruna.
In Wednesday games:
At Newcastle, England, Partizan Belgrade upset English side Newcastle. Partizan advanced after winning a penalty shootout 4-3. The Serbs won the match 1-0 on Ivica Iliev's goal in the 50th minute to draw the two-legged tie even on aggregate 1-1. After a scoreless overtime, Partizan won the shootout 4-3 as England captain Alan Shearer, Kieron Dyer and Jonathan Woodgate missed their attempts. It was 2-2 after five penalty attempts. In sudden death, Partizan scored both of its attempts and Newcastle scored only one.
At Copenhagen, Denmark, Scottish champions Rangers won 2-1 at FC Copenhagen to advance 3-2. Shota Arveladze got the winner for Rangers in the 86th after Alvaro dos Santos equalized for Copenhagen in the 83rd. Mikel Arteta scored for Rangers on a penalty in the 52nd.
At Glasgow, Scotland, Celtic reached the main phase, defeating Hungarian side MTK Hungaria 1-0 to advance 5-0 on aggregate. Chris Sutton scored in the 13th to give Celtic the only goal they needed.
At Porto, Portugal, Lazio booked its place in the group phase by edging Benfica 1-0 on a first-half goal by Cesar. Lazio advanced 4-1 on aggregate. The Brazilian defender scored in the 27th minute, heading in a cross from Stefano Fiore.
At Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 to advance 3-2. Mikhail Ashvetia scored two with Sergei Ignashevich scoring a late penalty.
At Sofia, Bulgaria, Turkish side Galatasaray defeated Bulgarian champions CSKA Sofia 3-0, advancing 6-0 on aggregate. Cesar Prates, Sabri Sarioglu and Arif Erdem scored for the Turks.
At Athens, Greece, AEK defeated Grasshoppers 3-1 to advance 3-2. Nikos Lymberopoulos scored two with the other for Costas Katsouranis. Richard Nunez scored for Grasshoppers.
At Prague, Czech Republic, Celta de Vigo lost 2-0 to Slavia Prague but still advanced to the group stage with a 3-2 aggregate win. Richard Dostalek and Tomas Hrdlicka scored first-half goals for Slavia.
At Amsterdam, Netherlands, Czech defender Tomas Galasek scored a penalty kick in extra time as Ajax Amsterdam defeated Grazer AK 2-1, advancing on a 3-2 aggregate. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored for Ajax in regular time and Roland Kollmann scored for Grazer.
RSS