Champions League Playoff roundup: Valencia through to group stage, Monaco knocked out
The second legs of a few Champions League playoff fixtures were played on Tuesday night with some notable teams getting knocked out on aggregate. Valencia overcame Monaco while Celtic lost out to Malmo FF. Here is a quick roundup of all the games.
Monaco 2-1 Valencia (Valencia qualify on 3-4 aggregate)
Although Monaco won their home leg, it wasn’t enough to win the tie on aggregate. Last year’s quarter-finalists from did not have a good start with Valencia’s Alvaro Negredo pouncing on a back pass from Fabinho in the fourth minute and scored by chipping Monaco goalkeeper Danijel Subasic.
Andrea Raggi then equalised in the 17th minute before Elderson scored in the 75th minute. Needing one more goal to force the tie into extra time, the Ligue 1 side failed find a third goal to allow Valencia to go through.
The Champions League will now see five Spanish teams in the group stages – Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Europa League winners Sevilla. Span also became the first country to have five teams in the group stage.
Malmo FF 2-0 Celtic (Malmo qualify on 4-3 aggregate)
Swedish side Malmo overturned a first-leg deficit to beat Scottish side Celtic FC to win the tie with an aggregate score of 4-3. The home side took the lead when Markus Rosenberg scored in the 23rd minute. Celtic had a chance at the end of the first half in a corner kick when Nir Bitton scored, but the goal was ruled out as the match officials deemed it a handball off a Celtic player before the goal was scored.
Replays suggested that it actually came off a Malmo defender Kari Arnason’s hand. What should have been a goal, or at least a penalty, meant that Celtic still needed to score at least one goal to qualify on away goals. But a Dedryck Boyata own goal in the second half saw Malmo qualify with an outright aggregate win.
Shakhtar Donetsk 2-2 SK Rapid Vienna (Shakhtar Donetsk qualify on 3-2 aggregate)
Although it was a home game for Shakhtar, they were actually playing in Lviv because of the Ukrainian conflict in Donetsk. Marlos scored the opening goal for Shakhtar in the 10th minute but Rapid’s Louis Schaub equalised soon after and then it was 1-2 when Steffen Hofmann scored off a free kick.
At this stage, Rapid would have qualified on away goals but Oleksandr Hladkiy then scored in the 27th minute for Shakhtar to make it 2-2. Rapid then saw Mario Sonnleitner get his marching orders after a second yellow card. The Austrian side came very close to scoring the winner (and secure qualification) when Philipp Prosenik hit the post in injury time.
Other results
Dinamo Zagreb 4-1 Skenderbeu Korce (Dinamo qualify on 6-2 aggregate)
Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-1 FC Basel (Tel Aviv qualify on 3-3 away goals – Aggregate score 3-3)