Champions League - Round-up: Schalke out

Eurosport - Thu, 28 Aug 13:26:00 2008

Atletico Madrid crushed German side Schalke 04 4-1 on aggregate to reach the Champions League proper after beating them 4-0 at home in their third qualifying round second leg.

FOOTBALL 2007-2008 La Liga Atlético de Madrid Sergio Kun Agüero Aguero - 0

They were joined by former winners Marseille and three teams who qualified for the lucrative group stage of the competition for the first time.

Argentine striker Sergio Aguero cancelled out Schalke's 1-0 lead from the first leg before second-half goals by Diego Forlan, Luis Garcia and Maxi Rodriguez sealed Atletico's passage at their Vicente Calderon stadium.

Marseille looked below par against Brann but two goals from Mamadou Niang sealed a 2-1 home win for a 3-1 aggregate victory over the Norwegians.

Danish champions Aalborg, Cypriots Anorthosis Famagusta and Belarus surprise package BATE Borisov enjoyed the unprecedented success of advancing past the preliminary rounds.

Anorthosis went down 1-0 away to Olympiacos thanks to a solitary goal from Argentine Fernando Belluschi, but the Cypriots upset the Greek side 3-1 on aggregate after a stunning 3-0 win in the first leg.

"We are delighted. It's an amazing result," said Anorthosis coach Temuri Ketsbaia.

"We knew it would be difficult because Olympiacos are a great team, they have been in the Champions League for the last 11 years. But we came here and we held on and deserved to go through."

Aalborg beat Kaunas 4-0 on aggregate after a Kasper Risgard double gave them a 2-0 away win over their nine-man Lithuanian rivals, while BATE held on for a 1-1 home draw against Levski Sofia after upsetting the Bulgarians 1-0 a fortnight ago.

There was mixed success for Turkish teams as Fenerbahce squeezed past Partizan Belgrade 4-3 on aggregate while bitter Istanbul rivals Galatasaray bowed out with a 3-2 overall defeat by 1986 European champions Steaua Bucharest.

Headers by Semih Senturk and Brazilian forward Alex gave Fenerbahce a 2-0 lead in front of their vociferous fans before Zoran Tosic set up a nervy finish with a superb free kick.

Banel Nicolita struck in the 57th minute to send Steaua through and give Romanian fans plenty to cheer about after the country's champions CFR Cluj qualified automatically.

Swiss side Basel made sure of their return to Europe's premier club competition by beating Portuguese side Guimaraes 2-1 at home and 3-1 on aggregate, with Erin Derdiyok sealing the victory on the night.

Shakhtar Donetsk comfortably beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 in Croatia to go through 5-1 on aggregate, while fellow Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev progressed in even more emphatic style at home to Spartak Moscow, as they matched their 4-1 scoreline from the first leg to go through 8-2 in total.

Serie A side Fiorentina eased into the group stage with a 0-0 draw at Slavia Prague after doing all the hard work in the first leg by winning it 2-0.

Watch the draw for the Champions League group stage LIVE on eurosport.yahoo.com on Thursday from 1700 BST!

Reuters

Comment 1 - 10 of 10

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  1. schalke are @#$%!

    From tugnait@..., on Thu 28 Aug 10:23PM

  2. atheletico will be dumped in the gruop stages .

    From tugnait@..., on Thu 28 Aug 10:22PM

  3. Schalke will win the UEFA- cup, there`s no way milan could stop us

    From Hendrik G, on Thu 28 Aug 3:51PM

  4. NUUUUUULLVIIIIEEEEERRRR

    From Hendrik G, on Thu 28 Aug 3:46PM

  5. SCHAAAAAAAAALKEEE!!!!!

    From Hendrik G, on Thu 28 Aug 3:45PM

  6. jdsdwqg g

    From Hendrik G, on Thu 28 Aug 3:45PM

  7. Ano ole ole - Stupid stupid Olympiacos fans - what did we do to deserve this - because we beat u 3-0 in Larnaca u couldn't take it. I await your punishmnet - no all us northosis fans await your 2nd punishment - we served the 1st!! Amazing, I too thought we had a chance, but when your 3-0 up from the 1st leg & the 2nd leg your still 3 up @ HT only a total collapse will throw you out. The players did it - Ketsbaia used all his experience to counter anything the Greek Champs tried but they were toothless.

    Ano have done Cyprus proud & will do so in the CL no matter if they don't win or even if we get drubbed (but I doubt it - only a short term tragedy it would be if it did happen). Roll on 7pm (CY time) for the draw - Man Utd or Barca or Inter, Juve & the Turks for our group pls.

    Anorthosis 4ever and ever and ever!!!

    From Yiannaki Y, on Thu 28 Aug 2:05PM

  8. BATE BORISOV RULEZ FOREVER!!!Forza first belarussian team in champions league!

    From grouch87, on Thu 28 Aug 8:54AM

  9. amazing ATHLETICO... C.league is going SPAIN this SEASON

    wit Barca of course!!!

    From Emmanuel A, on Thu 28 Aug 4:18AM

  10. Anorthosis is clearly the best team in Cyprus and in the past few years the team suprised all of Cyprus by making some stuning victories against very strong european teams. From the first match until the last during the exciting qualifying stages a lot of Cypriots including me were sure that anorthosis will go through to the Champions League because we knew that Anorthosis had players with skills and passion, which are the main reasons that they played so well. We as Cypriots are very proud of having a team such as Anorthosis representing Cypriot football and thankfully our dream that a Cypriot team will be part of the greatest football tournament as well as a celebration of football in Europe has come true. I hope for the best and good luck for Anorthosis as well as both Apoel and Omonia who are representing Cyprus in the UEFA Cup. ANO OLE OLE!!!!!!!

    From peti_petou2, on Wed 27 Aug 11:01PM
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