Carrying a 1-0 advantage from the first leg in Belgium last week, Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg cruised to a comfortable 3-0 in their home fixture against Standard Liège. José Rondón opened the scoring for the hosts on 30 minutes, giving his side a 1-0 lead at the break, yet were a man down after Viktor Fayzulin was shown a second yellow a minute before the break.
Any hope of a Belgian comeback were dashed within 15 minutes of the restart, as Brazilian forward Hulk netted two in the space of four minutes, as the Russians qualified for the this year’s tournament with a comfortable 4-0 aggregate win.
Scottish champions Celtic were stunned by Slovenian side Maribor 1-0 at Celtic Park, as a second half goal by captain Tavares resulted in a 2-1 aggregate win for the Slovenian champions, who qualify for Europe’s elite club competition for the first time in 15 years.
In Portugal, Porto eased to a comfortable 2-0 win over French outfit LOSC Lille, Yacine Brahimi and Jackson Martínez on target for the hosts who progressed 3-0 on aggregate. Elsewhere, Cyprus champions Apoel reached the group stages for the third time after dispatching Danish club Aalborg 4-0, while Belarusian side BATE eased to a comfortable 4-1 win over Bratislava.
In Wednesday night’s qualifiers, English side Arsenal will hope to be on target at home following their 0-0 first-leg draw at Besiktas last week, while Spanish club Athletic Bilbao hold a vital away goal as they play host to Italian side Napoli following their 1-1 draw in Naples.
Zenit 3-0 Standard Liège (Agg. 4-0)
BATE 3-0 Slovan Bratislava (Agg. 4-1)
Porto 2-0 LOSC Lille (Agg. 3-0)
Celtic 0-1 Maribor (Agg. 1-2)
APOEL 4-0 Aalborg (Agg. 5-1)
Ludogorets vs Steaua
Malmö vs Salzburg
Athletic vs Napoli
Arsenal vs Besiktas
Leverkusen vs København