Three Cypriot teams, AEK Larnaca, APOEL FC and Apollon Limassol have progressed to Europa League’s play-offs after Thursday’s matches.
AEK Larnaca beat Sturm Graz with an impressive 5-0, proceeding to the next qualifier stage. The Larnaca team will face Slovakian Trencin.
APOEL FC also managed to progress to the next Europa League phase eliminating Hapoel Beer Sheva with a 3-1 win. The club’s next opponent is Astana Kazakhstan.
In the last match of the evening yesterday, Apollon Limassol lost 1-0 to FC Dynamo Brest in an away game but still went home with the ticket to the play-offs with a 4-1 result on aggregate. The team will compete next against Swiss club Basel.
The first legs of the play-off stage are set to take place on August 23 and the second legs on August 30.
Burnley moved within one round of the Europa League group stage as they beat Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir after extra time.
Following a goalless first leg, Jack Cork scored the only goal at Turf Moor when he curled into the top corner.
Burnley in their first season of European football since 1966-67, will play Greek side Olympiakos in a two-legged play-off, with the winners qualifying for the group stage.
Olympiakos beat Swiss team Luzern 3-1 last night and 7-1 on aggregate.
Chelsea and Arsenal will join the competition in the group phase.
Rangers must beat Russian side FC Ufa to reach the Europa League group stage after easing past Maribor 3-1 on aggregate.
Steven Gerrard’s side drew 0-0 in Slovenia after Allan McGregor saved Marcos Tavares’ stoppage-time penalty.
Scotland international McGregor had earlier denied Tavares and Amir Dervisevic during a professional showing from the Premiership side.
Rangers will now join Celtic in the competition’s play-off round.
Zenit St Petersburg produced the biggest Europa League comeback in 33 years as they overturned a 4-0 first-leg deficit in astonishing fashion to stun Dinamo Minsk.
The Russian side were hammered in the first leg in Belarus and, despite fighting back to lead the second leg 2-0, looked to be heading out when Leandro Paredes was sent off with 18 minutes remaining.
But Zenit, who reached the last 16 in 2017-18, responded superbly as Russian World Cup hero Artem Dzyuba scored twice to level the scores at 4-4 on aggregate and take the tie to extra time.
Incredibly, there was still plenty more drama to come, as Zenit’s hopes appeared to be dashed when Seidu Yahaya scored an away goal for Dinamo Minsk nine minutes into extra time, meaning they led 5-4 and Zenit’s 10 men needed to score twice to progress.
Argentine forward Sebastian Driussi gave them hope with 11 minutes of extra time remaining, before Dzyuba – scorer of three goals in Russia’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals – completed his hat-trick to put Zenit 6-5 up and on course for an astonishing victory.
In a game packed full of drama, there was still time for the hosts to score twice more. Robert Mak made it 7-1 on the night from the penalty spot, an award which led to the game’s second red card, this time for Dinamo’s Maksim Shvetsov.
And with 123 minutes on the clock, Mak completed the scoring to make it 8-1 on the night and 8-5 on aggregate.
The last time a team overturned a four-goal deficit in this competition – previously the Uefa Cup – was in 1985, when Real Madrid came back from 5-1 down against Borussia Monchengladbach to level the scores in the second leg and advance from their last-16 tie on away goals.
Zenit will now face Molde, managed by former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in the play-off round after the Norwegians beat Scottish side Hibernian 3-0 on aggregate.
Qualifying Third Round
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Kairat Almaty1 Sigma Olomouc 2
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Progrès Niederkorn2 FC Ufa 2
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AEK Larnaca 5 SK Sturm Graz 0
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HJK Helsinki 1 Olimpija Ljubljana 4
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FC Copenhagen 2 CSKA Sofia 1
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Universitatea Craiova 1 RB Leipzig 1
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Apoel Nicosia3 Hapoel Be’er Sheva 1
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CFR Cluj 5 Alashkert 0
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FC Midtjylland 3The New Saints 1
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Kukesi 2Torpedo Kutaisi 0
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Molde3Hibernian0
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Suduva 0 Spartaks Jurmala 0
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Zalgiris 0Sevilla 5
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Zenit St Petersburg 8 Dinamo Minsk 1
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Luzern 1 Olympiakos 3
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Maccabi Tel-Aviv 2 Pyunik 1
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Dinamo Brest 1 Apollon Limassol 0
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LASK 2 Besiktas 1
Besiktas win on away goals
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Atalanta 2 Hapoel Haifa 0
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FC Basel 1 Vitesse 0
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Brøndby IF 2 Spartak Subotica 1
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F91 Dudelange 2 Legia Warsaw 2
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Zrinjski Mostar 1 Ludogorets Razgrad 1
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Lech Poznan 1 KRC Genk 2
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NK Maribor0Rangers0
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Steaua Bucharest2Hajduk Split1
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Feyenoord1 AS Trencín 1
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KAA Gent 3 Jagiellonia Bialystok 1
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Partizan Belgrade 3 FC Nordsjælland 2
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Rapid Vienna 4 Slovan Bratislava 0
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Bordeaux 2 Mariupol 1
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Burnley 1 Istanbul Basaksehir 0
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HNK Rijeka 0 Sarpsborg 08 1
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Rosenborg 3 Cork City 0
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Valur Reykjavík 2 Sheriff Tiraspol 1
Sheriff Tiraspol win on away goals
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Sporting Braga 2 Zorya Luhansk 2
Zorya Luhansk win on away goals
