Last season's UEFA Cup finalist Celtic Glasgow advanced to the final round of Champions League qualifying with a 1-0 victory over FBK Kaunas of Lithuania on Wednesday.
Also through to the third qualifying round of Europe's premier club soccer competition are Belgium's Anderlecht, Norway's Rosenborg and the Czech Republic's Slavia Prague.
PHOTO: AP
An own goal by Darius Gvildys in the 21st minute handed Celtic the win in a second qualifying round game and gave the Scottish club a 5-0 overall triumph.
Runner up to FC Porto in last season's UEFA Cup, Celtic will next meet MTK Hungaria, which ousted Finland's HJK Helsinki on a 3-2 aggregate score.
Celtic was ousted in last year's Champions League qualifying by Switzerland's Basel.
In Brussels, South Korean international Seol Ki-hyeon completed a stunning comeback to lead Anderlecht to a 3-2 win over Rapid Bucharest following a goalles draw last week in the Romanian capital.
Anderlecht trailed 2-0 at half-time before goals from Nenad Jestrovic and Swedish veteran Par Zetterberg brought Belgium's most famous team back just minutes into the second half.
In the 73rd minute, winger Seol rose unmarked to meet a corner kick from Zetterberg and headed past Ibrahim Dossey to push Anderlecht into a third qualifying round match against Wisla Krakow.
In Trondheim, Rosenborg took a big step toward a record ninth straight Champions League spot by blanking Bohemians of Ireland 4-0 for a 5-0 aggregate score. The Norwegian champion next faces Deportivo La Coruna.
In Prague, Czech vice-champion Slavia Prague beat Bosnia's Leotar Trebinje 2-0 for a comfortable 4-1 overall triumph. The Czechs take on Celta Vigo.
In Skopje, Macedonian champion Vardar held Russian league leader CSKA Moscow to a 1-1 draw to advance to the third qualifying round for the first time.
The Macedonian champion had stunned CSKA with a 2-1 win in Moscow last week and held the ambitious Russian team at bay for most of the second leg.
CSKA dominated the first half and opened the scoring through Spartak Gogniev in the 31st minute. But Brazilian striker Oliveira Dos Santos headed in the equalizer in the 65th minute.
In other matches:
Grazer AK (Austria) 2, SK Tirana (Albania) 1 (Grazer AK advances 7-2).
Brazil has four teams, more than any other country, in the expanded Club World Cup that kicked off yesterday in the US, but for SE Palmeiras, the competition holds a special meaning: winning it would provide some redemption. Under coach Abel Ferreira since 2020, Palmeiras lifted two Copa Libertadores titles, plus Brazilian league, cup and state championships. Even before Ferreira, it boasted another South American crown and 11 league titles. The only major trophy missing is a world champions’ title. Other Brazilian clubs like Fluminense FC and Botafogo FR, also in the tournament, have never won it either, but the problem for Palmeiras
Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in has pleaded with South Korea fans to get behind the team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup after more boos were aimed at coach Hong Myung-bo despite leading them to qualification. South Korea reached next year’s finals in North America without losing a game, but that does not tell the whole story. The country’s soccer association has been in the firing line, having scrambled about to find a successor after sacking the unpopular Jurgen Klinsmann in February last year. They eventually settled on Hong, the decorated former skipper who had an unsuccessful stint as coach in 2013-2014, during which
Lionel Messi drew vast crowds and showed flashes of his brilliance when his Inter Miami side were held to a goalless draw by African giants Al-Ahly as the revamped FIFA Club World Cup got off to a festive start on Saturday. Fans showed up en masse for the Group A clash at the Hard Rock Stadium, home to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, but Messi could not fully deliver, his best chance coming through a last-second attempt that was deflected onto the crossbar. Inter Miami next face FC Porto on Thursday in Atlanta, while Al-Ahly, who benefited from raucous, massive support, are to
Ferrari’s F1 fortunes might be flagging, but the Italian team start this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans as favorites, targeting a third consecutive triumph in motorsport’s fabled endurance classic. Roger Federer is acting as celebrity starter with the tennis icon getting the 93rd edition of the jewel in four-wheeled endurance racing’s crown under way tomorrow. Twenty-four hours later, through daylight, darkness and dawn, the 21 elite hypercars are to battle it out over 300 laps (more than 4,000km) in front of a sold-out 320,000 crowd burning the midnight oil with copious quantities of coffee and beer. Ferrari made a triumphant return after
RSS