Rubin, Udinese, Bruges and Alkmaar into last 32
Rubin Kazan, Udinese, Bruges and AZ Alkmaar qualified for the Europa
league knockout stages on Thursday and will go into the draw for the
round of 32 with big guns Manchester United and Manchester City after
their Champions League elimination.
Rubin Kazan, down to 10 men after 13 minutes, held on for a 1-1 draw
at PAOK Salonika to qualify at the expense of last season's Champions
League quarter-finalists Tottenham Hotspur.
The under-strength English Premier League side, with only three
outfield players on the bench, won 4-0 at Shamrock Rovers but finished
third in Group A, one point behind the Russians.
Udinese's Antonio Di Natale volleyed an equaliser in first half
stoppage time to give the Italians the point they needed at home to
Celtic who had taken the lead through Gary Hooper. The 1-1 draw left
Udinese second in Group I behind Atletico Madrid.
Bruges also went through with a 1-1 home draw versus last year's
Europa League finalists Braga, who played most of the Group H match with
10 men, as did Dutch league leaders Alkmaar by the same scoreline
against Metalist Kharkiv in Group G. Bjorn Vleminckx opened the scoring
for Bruges just after the break against a Braga side who had defender
Elderson sent off in the 16th minute for a trip on Vadis Odjidja but the
Portuguese outfit equalised with a fine strike from Ewerton in the
65th.English Championship (second division) side Birmingham City beat
Maribor 1-0 but finished a point behind group winners Bruges and Braga
who had already qualified.
Alkmaar's Adam Maher equalised seconds after Metalist went ahead late
in the first half through Marko Devic and the point kept the Dutch side
in second place just above Austria Vienna, who beat visitors Malmo 2-0,
on goal difference.
The draw for the round of 32 will be held on Friday.
Tottenham needed a win combined with a defeat for Rubin and had to
make up a difference of five goals to qualify and, although it looked
impossible to start with, it was on the cards at the break in the
respective games.
"At halftime we knew that the other team (Rubin) were losing and
thought we had a real chance," Spurs manager Harry Redknapp told ITV4.
"We knew they had gone down to ten men."
Rubin fell behind to a Vierinha penalty in the 16th minute after
their goalkeeper Sergei Ryzhikov was sent off for scything down Giorgos
Georgiadis, while a second-string Tottenham side had opened up a
three-goal halftime lead at Shamrock.
But Paraguay forward Nelson Haedo Valdez scored for Rubin three
minutes after the break, volleying in from the penalty spot after
Gokdeniz Karadeniz had cut the ball back.
South Africa midfielder Steven Pienaar, with his first goal for
Spurs, Andros Townsend and Jermain Defoe struck in a 16-minute spell
before halftime to keep the Londoners in the hunt.
Substitute Harry Kane then added the fourth in stoppage time for
Tottenham, who have fielded under-strength teams in all their group
games.
Shamrock's defeat in coach Michael O'Neill's last game in charge,
ended a 12-match European campaign that began in mid-July and included
progress to the third qualifying round of the Champions League where
they lost to FC Copenhagen.
That sent them into the Europa League playoff round where they
surprisingly eliminated Partizan Belgrade, only to lose all six group
games. BERNE, Friday, Reuters |
