| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
PARIS: Arsenal swept into the Champions League group stages on Wednesday after completing a 5-1 play-off romp over Celtic at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners join last year's finalists Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the competition from the English Premier League where big spenders Real Madrid, as well as Juventus and Inter Milan will, as second seeds, all be potential opposition along with Rangers, 2004 champions Porto and Lyon.
Two goals to the good after the opening game in Glasgow, the Gunners all but sewed up their passage to the lucrative mini-league with a penalty from Croatian Eduardo on 27 minutes.
Motoring into the penalty box, the Rio-born forward went over the outstretched arms of onrushing Celtic keeper Artur Goruc far too easily for travelling fans of the Scottish side, the first British European Cup winners in 1967.
Eduardo rolled the ball home to make it 1-0 on the night
Further goals from Emmanuel Eboue and Russian substitute Andrei Arshavin increased the margin but Massimo Donati at least had the crumb of satisfaction of scoring the goal of the night, a sublime volley right at the death.
Arsenal have lost Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Manchester City since last season's run to the semis - where they lost to United - but they have begun the season superbly and now can look forward to the competition proper after Wednesday's win.
"I think we worked really hard for each other," enthused striker Nicklas Bendtner, who quickly slipped into the diplomatic language of coach Arsene Wenger when asked about the penalty award.
"I can't really comment on it because I haven't seen it," Bendtner told Sky Sports.
Also into the hat for Thursday's group draw are Italy's Fiorentina, who just pipped Sporting Lisbon on away goals following a 1-1 draw in Florence which came on the back of a 2-2 draw in the Portuguese capital.
Yannick Djalo should have given the visitors the lead early on but with only goalkeeper Sebastien Frey to beat he scuffed his shot wide from 12 yards before they cemented their early pressure with a freekick on 35 minutes netted by Joao Moutinho.
Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli made a switch at the break replacing Massimo Gobbi with attacking Montenegro midfielder Stevan Jovetic and it was he who levelled to send the Italians through.
Also into the group stage are Cyprus minnows APOEL Nicosia, who beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 to seal an aggregate 3-2 victory.
Cypriot international Chrysis Michael played a captain's role by bagging a brace - one from the spot - with Polish midfielder Kamil Kosowski also on target.
Dame N'Doye netted the Danes' lone reply as APOEL emulated Anorthosis Famagusta, who became the first Cyprus side to reach the Champions League groups last season.
Also through are Greek side Olympiakos, who completed a 3-0 aggretate success over Moldova's Sheriff, and Germans VfB Stuttgart, who went through by dint of a 2-0 away first leg win at Romania's Politehnica Timisoara after the second match ended goalless.
On Tuesday, French side Lyon completed an 8-2 win over two legs against Belgium's Anderlecht to join Hungary's Debrecen, Israel's Maccabi Haifa, Atletico Madrid and FC Zurich in the group draw, worth millions of dollars in FIFA cash and global television rights.
Results from the second leg of the Champions League play-offs:
Apoel Nicosia (CYP) 3 FC Copenhagen (DEN) 1
(Apoel Nicosia win 3-2 on aggregate)
Arsenal (ENG) 3 Celtic (SCO) 1
(Arsenal win 5-1 on aggregate)
Fiorentina (ITA) 1 Sporting Lisbon (POR) 1
(3-3 on aggregate, Fiorentina win on away goals)
Olympiakos (GRE) 1 Sheriff (MDA) 0
(Olympiakos win 3-0 on aggregate)
VfB Stuttgart (GER) 0 Politehnica Timisoara (ROM) 0
(VfB Stuttgart win 2-0 on aggregate)
- AFP/de
|
