The Champions League third qualifying round gave us several surprises, the biggest ones being that Rangers, Slavia Praha and Red Star Belgrade have been knocked out despite being unbeaten last season in their domestic title wins.
Rangers lost to Malmö 2-1 at home, making the latter team win by a 4-2 aggregate. Malmö FC won their home round in Sweden, against Rangers with a similar score.
Red Star lost 1-0 to Moldovian Club, Sheriff FC to go out on a 2-1 aggregate. Dinamo Zagreb won their match against Legia Warsaw 1-0 and got through to the next round with a 2-1 aggregate. Red Star lost a chance to face their former rivals, Zagreb. Red Star has been Champions League winners in 1991.
Slavia Praha won their match against Ferencváros 1-0 but failed to overturn their two-goal deficit from the first leg, which led to the latter team going through.
Former European champion Benfica and PSV Eindhoven will face in the playoffs in a rematch of the 1988 European Cup final after both advanced 4-0 on aggregate against Spartak Moscow and Midtjylland, respectively.
Shakhtar Donetsk won 2-1 in both legs against Genk to earn a playoff spot against Monaco, the 2004 Champions League beaten finalist. Monaco beat Sparta Prague 3-1 at home on Tuesday and comfortably went through 5-1 on aggregate.
Switzerland’s Young Boys won their tie against Cluj 3-1 and went past 4-2 on aggregate. USA’s Jordan Siebatcheu scored twice in the first half to make the Swiss team win the game after Cluj scored an early goal.
Ludogorets Razgrad, the champion of Bulgaria, beat Olympiakos in a penalty shootout after the teams were tied 3-3 on aggregate. Ludogorets profited from the abolition of the away-goals rule this season, which would lately have sent Olympiakos through after the 2-2 second-leg draw.
Teams from the Czech Republic and Scotland are out of this year’s Champions League. All the tea!s qualified will now play the playoff round, which will be played over the next two midweeks.
The draw of the 32-team group stage will occur on August 26 in Istanbul.
