Spartak in the hat

Spartak Moscow beat Czech side Slovan Liberec 2-1 tonight in the second leg of their third-round qualifier to progress on aggregate by the same score and reach the Champions League group stages.

Brazilian midfielder Mozart gave Spartak a 23rd-minute lead.

However, when Ivan Hodur equalised from the penalty spot after 73 minutes after a foul on Jan Blazek by Martin Jiranek it looked as though the Czech champions might prevail.

Roman Pavlyuchenko had other ideas, though, and netted the winner six minutes later for Spartak who finished runners-up to CSKA Moscow in the Russian Premier League last season.

Steaua Bucharest, European champions in 1986, booked their ticket with a 2-1 home win over Standard Liege giving them a 4-3 aggregate triumph.

Milan Jovanovic gave the visitors from Belgium a second-minute lead only for two goals from Valentin Badea to see Steaua through in a match refereed by Englishman Graham Poll.

The visitors had Ricardo Sa Pinto sent off with eight minutes to play,

Galatasaray’s 1-1 draw at Mlada Boleslav saw the Turks complete a 6-3 aggregate win.

Hasan Sas gave the Istanbul club a 73rd-minute lead before defender Marian Palat grabbed a late consolation for the Czechs.

Four-times European champions Ajax crashed out in sensational style as they lost 2-0 at home to FC Copenhagen of Denmark.

Ajax had won the first leg 2-1 in Denmark but had no answer to the Danes in a devastating result for new coach Henk ten Cate who was Frank Rijkaard’s assistant at Barcelona in last year’s successful campaign by the Spanish club.

Michael Silberbauer opened the scoring after 59 minutes for the visitors with a close-range effort before a horrendous sliced own goal by Thomas Vermaelen sunk the Amsterdammers.

Lille completed a 4-0 aggregate win over Rabotnicki of FYR Macedonia with Johan Audel’s goal giving them a 1-0 win in the away leg.

Dynamo Kiev’s 2-2 draw at Istanbul against Fenerbahce earned them a 5-3 aggregate win. Twice Maksim Shatskikh gave the Ukrainian club the lead on the night.

Equalisers from Stephen Appiah and Kerim Zengin secured a draw for the Turks but they never looked like overturning the 3-1 first-leg deficit.

CSKA Moscow joined city rivals Spartak in the hat with a 2-0 win in Slovakia at the expense of Ruzemberok giving them a 5-0 aggregate win. Brazilians Wagner Love and Daniel Carvalho scored the goals for the 2005 UEFA Cup winners and reigning Russian champions.