Arsenal swept into the Champions League group stages on Wednesday after completing a 5-1 play-off romp over Celtic at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners join last year’s finalists Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the competition from the English Premier League, where big spenders Real Madrid, as well as Juventus and Inter will, as second seeds, all be potential opposition along with Rangers, 2004 champions Porto and Lyon.
Two goals to the good after the opening game in Glasgow, the Gunners all but sewed up their passage to the lucrative mini-league with a penalty from Croatian Eduardo on 27 minutes.
PHOTO: EPA
Motoring into the penalty box, the Rio-born forward went over the outstretched arms of onrushing Celtic keeper Artur Goruc, far too easily for traveling fans of the Scottish side, the first British European Cup winners in 1967.
Eduardo rolled the ball home to make it 1-0 on the night. Further goals from Emmanuel Eboue and Russian substitute Andrei Arshavin increased the margin, but Massimo Donati at least had the crumb of satisfaction of scoring the goal of the night, a sublime volley right at the death.
Arsenal have lost Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Manchester City since last season’s run to the semi-finals — where they lost to United — but they have begun the season superbly and now can look forward to the competition proper after Wednesday’s win.
Coach Arsene Wenger admitted the spot-kick was fortuitous.
“Having seen it again on television, it doesn’t look to be a penalty, but we were likely to score the first goal and we always looked in control of the game,” Wenger said.
Joining Arsenal in the hat for the group draw are Italy’s Fiorentina, who just pipped Sporting of Portugal on away goals following a 1-1 draw in Florence which came on the back of a 2-2 draw in Lisbon.
Sporting started the stronger and Joao Moutinho put them into a 35th-minute lead.
Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli replaced Massimo Gobbi with attacking Montenegro midfielder Stevan Jovetic at the break and it was he who leveled to send the Italians through.
Also into the group stage are Cyprus minnows APOEL Nicosia, who beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 to seal an aggregate 3-2 victory.
Cypriot international Chrysis Michael played a captain’s role by bagging a brace — one from the spot — with Polish midfielder Kamil Kosowski also on target.
Dame N’Doye netted the Danes’ lone reply as APOEL emulated Anorthosis Famagusta, who became the first Cyprus side to reach the Champions League group phase last season.
Also through are Greek side Olympiakos, who completed a 3-0 aggregate success over Moldova’s Sheriff, and Germans VfB Stuttgart, who went through by dint of a 2-0 away first-leg win at Romania’s Politehnica Timisoara after the second match ended goalless.
On Tuesday, French side Lyon, Hungary’s Debrecen, Israel’s Maccabi Haifa, Atletico Madrid and FC Zurich went through to the group draw, worth millions of dollars in FIFA cash and global television rights.
Nine of the 32 teams who will be divided into eight groups of four are former European champions — AC Milan, holders Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester United, Porto and record nine-time winners Real Madrid.
Beyond those nine, 2007 finalists Chelsea and Arsenal, beaten by Barcelona in the trophy match the previous year, will pose a major threat, while the big names will be wary of dangerous floaters such as French champions Bordeaux and Lyon, a fixture in the Champions League over the past decade.
Dark horse bets also include Spain’s Seville and German league champions Wolfsburg.
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