Deportivo La Coruna, Lech Poznan and FC Copenhagen all won their final group matches 1-0 on Wednesday to clinch places in the next round of the UEFA Cup.
Deportivo defeated Nancy, who lost out on a place in the next round when Lech Poznan won at Feyenoord through a close-range finish by Ivan Djurdjevic in the 27th minute to take Group H’s remaining qualifying spot.
Copenhagen took the only other spot still up for grabs when Cesar Santin scored in the 58th minute at FC Bruges to knock out the Belgians by winning 1-0.
PHOTO: AFP
The result put Copenhagen in third place in Group G with five points from their four matches, two more than Bruges. Saint-Etienne won the tussle for first place in the group by drawing 2-2 with visiting Valencia.
Deportivo finished second to CSKA Moscow in Group H, with Lech Poznan leaping ahead of Nancy to finish in third place and eliminate the French team.
The final six spots in today’s draw were to be settled yesterday, with former winners Tottenham and Sevilla trying to join the likes of AC Milan, Valencia and Hamburg among the last 32 sides.
Milan, though, failed to win Group E as they had been expected to when Mahir Saglik scored with nine minutes left to earn Wolfsburg a 2-2 draw at San Siro.
Things looked good for the seven-time European champions when Massimo Ambrosini put them ahead in the 17th minute with a header from Clarence Seedorf’s corner kick, Cristian Zaccardo equalized in the 56th but substitute Alexandre Pato restored Milan’s lead just seconds later.
That looked to be it, but Saglik leveled again.
Wolfsburg’s 10 points put them two clear of Milan and four clear of Braga, who had already qualified. Heerenveen lost 3-0 at Portsmouth in the other match to take last place without a single point.
Topping the group means that Wolfsburg cannot be drawn against one of the eight teams to drop into the competition following elimination from the Champions League. That dubious honor goes to the sides that finish second in their UEFA Cup groups.
UEFA Cup holders Zenit St Petersburg, Bordeaux, Werder Bremen, Shakhtar Donetsk, Marseille, Aalborg, Fiorentina and Dynamo Kiev are the teams to come into the tournament from the Champions League.
Hamburg clinched top spot in Group F with a 3-1 win over already-qualified Aston Villa, but the Bundesliga club needed a contentious final goal to make the victory so comprehensive.
Mladen Petric and Ivica Olic had put the home side in control when Villa looked certain to get a 57th-minute penalty kick after goalkeeper Frank Rost leaped into a studs-first challenge on Craig Gardner. But referee Aleksei Nikolaev ruled against the English club and Joris Mathijsen launched a long pass to Olic, who shrugged off a challenge by Carlos Cuellar and shot past goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
Nathan Delfouneso got a late goal for Villa but his team had to play the last seven minutes with 10 men when Steve Sidwell was shown a second yellow card.
The Germans finished with nine points, two more than Ajax, who drew 2-2 with already-eliminated Slavia Prague, and three more than Villa.
Jan Vertonghen headed in Miralem Sulejmani’s third-minute corner to give Ajax the lead but Jaroslav Cerny converted Matej Krajcik’s cross to level for Slavia in the 12th. Marek Jarolim put Slavia in front in the 40th before Luis Suarez scored an injury-time penalty to level the scores.
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