A day before Maccabi Haifa will host Apollon Limassol as part of the Champions League qualifiers, the third qualifying round has already started this evening (Tuesday) with five games.
As part of the champions’ route, Ludogorets of Dani Groper stayed away from the playoff stage after losing 2:1 at home to Dinamo Zagreb. The visitor from the capital of Croatia took an early double lead. The brakeman Dino Fritsch scored in the sixth minute, an own goal by goalkeeper Sergio Padet three minutes later doubled the result. The Bulgarians pulled away from a goal by Bernard Tepectai in the 22nd minute, but not beyond. The Israeli defender is not a partner.
Similar to Zagreb, Viktoria Plzen also got closer to the playoff stage with a 1:2 away win over Moldavian Sharif. The Czechs fell behind to a precise penalty by Ibrahim Rashid in the 36th minute, but Tomas Chory (41) and Pavel Buch (55) converted.
In the league circuit, where teams that are not the champions in their country play, PSV Eindhoven drew 1:1 away against Monaco in the first game. Eran Zahavi’s former club, which won the Dutch Supercup this week after a crazy 3:5 over Ajax, took the lead in the 39th minute after a nice operation between Luc de Jong and Joey Firman that ended in the latter’s goal, but the rival from the principalities equalized thanks to a strike by Axel Disassi in the 80th minute .
Last season’s Cinderella in Belgium, Union Saint-Gilleois, did settle for runners-up after leading the table for most of the season, but tonight they took a significant step in their dream of joining Club Brugge in the group stage of the Champions League. The host met the Scottish Rangers and took the lead with a goal by Teddy Tauma in the 27th minute, Dante Vanzier Dijk from the penalty spot in the 76th minute and made it 0:2 which gives a significant advance for the rematch in Glasgow.
In the last game of the evening held on the league circuit, Benfika obtained a very significant advance towards advancing to the playoff stage when they beat Mitioland 1:4 at home. The hosts started with a storm and took a double lead from a pair of assists by David Ners to Gonzalo Ramos in the 17th and 33rd minutes, and even before the break it was Enso Fernandez who made it 0:3 40 minutes after the opening whistle. Ramos also completed a hat-trick in the 61st minute and brought the Portuguese very close to the play-off stage, but Fiona Sisto’s successful penalty with 12 minutes left to the final whistle may have left the Danes with a glimmer of hope for next week’s meeting.