West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic’s decision to put out a young, largely inexperienced side for the second leg of their UEFA Europa League third qualifying round tie at Astra Giurgiu backfired when the Romanian side ran out 2-1 winners on Thursday.
The Hammers, who had let slip a two-goal lead and conceded a last-gasp equalizer in the first leg last week, went out 4-3 on aggregate.
It had all started so well as a goal from debutant Manuel Lanzini inside three minutes put them ahead, but two quick goals in three minutes from skipper Constantin Budescu, after 33 and 36 minutes, put the Romanian side in the driving seat.
Photo: AP
Bilic defended his decision to rest a host of first-choice players ahead of their English Premier League opener against Arsenal tomorrow.
“It is a good experience for a few of the youngsters, but some of the guys who played tonight showed us they are going to be very useful,” Bilic said. “We have a big season ahead of us which starts on Sunday and we are going to be good in the Premier League. I am very confident about that.”
Borussia Dortmund, who were UEFA Champions League runners-up in 2012-2013, eased into the playoff draw with a 5-0 mauling of Wolfsberger AC of Austria for a 6-0 aggregate victory.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan grabbed the headlines with a hat-trick in 13 second-half minutes.
Southampton were already 3-0 up in their tie against Vitesse of the Netherlands from the first leg and they cruised through 5-0 on aggregate after Graziano Pelle’s low shot after four minutes killed the tie off as a contest and Senegalese striker Sadio Mane added the final flourish a minute from time.
The result was slightly tainted by news that Dutch police made 53 arrests in Arnhem before the game, where opposing fans had apparently been drinking together peacefully until trouble erupted.
Walter Zenga’s UC Sampdoria were also losers against Vojvodina of Serbia, despite winning their second leg 2-0, but their shock 4-0 defeat on home turf last week proved too great a deficit to recover.
Aberdeen were held 1-1 by Kazakh side Kairat and went out 3-2 on aggregate.
Gerard Gohou opened the scoring after 59 minutes for the visitors and although Kenny McLean leveled on the night, the Dons could not find the second goal that would have seen them take the tie into extra-time.
Athletic Bilbao did just enough to reach the playoffs by holding Inter Baku PIK of Azerbaijan 0-0.
Having done the hard part in the home leg last week, they moved into the draw 2-0 on aggregate.
Rubin Kazan of Russia went into their second leg against seasoned European campaigners SK Sturm Graz 3-2 up from the away leg and survived a brief scare when Josip Tadic put the Austrian side ahead on the night, but it was left to captain Oleg Kuzmin to steady the ship five minutes from the end with an equalizer which left it 1-1 to send Kazan through 4-3 on aggregate.
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