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On Wednesday, all the teams that managed to advance to the main UEFA Champions League final stage were revealed. The biggest and most unexpected sensation was recorded in Amsterdam, where the local club "Ajax" after a victory away in the third round first leg against "Copenhagen" unexpectedly stumbled at home 0-2 and thus dramatically gave way to the Danish champions, while the "Lithuanian" Edinburgh's "Hearts" club suffered a painful defeat in Athens.
As mentioned earlier, Denmark's "Copenhagen" managed to beat the powerful Amsterdam "Ajax" with a score of 2-0 away and qualify for the Champions League group stage. The beginning of the match by "Ajax" promised nothing bad - they created chances one after another, one shot by Ryan Babel hit the post, and at the end of the first half only Tobias Linderoth cleared Jaap Stam's shot from the goal line.
However, Henk ten Cate's charges had to pay for a multitude of wasted opportunities: midway through the second half, Michael Silberbauer redirected T. Linderoth's penalty shot into the goal. This goal caused a kind of panic among the hosts and Copenhagen took advantage of it perfectly: in the 77th minute, after a pass from William Kvist Jorgensen from the flank, Ajax defender Belgian Thomas Vermaelen redirected the ball into his own goal.
Earlier, in the matches, Moscow's "Spartak" and Liberec's "Slovan" threw weapons into battle. Spartak defeated the Czech champions after a tough and eventful match in a scoreline of 2-1. However, Lithuanian Tomas Radzinevicius was not registered for these matches.
The first match between the winners did not reveal a winner, so everything had to start over. "Spartak" immediately attacked their opponents and in the 23rd minute, the goal was scored by Moscow's team's legionnaire from Brazil, Mozart. The nerves of the Czech club's players did not hold and they had to finish the match with ten men after Tomas Zapotocny was sent off the field.
But "Slovan" did not intend to raise the white flag and in the 73rd minute, Ivan Hodur converted a penalty kick into a goal. A draw of 1-1 would have meant that "Slovan" would progress to the next round due to the away goal, but with a clear advantage, "Spartak" secured a victory when the most productive player of the team, Roman Pavlyuchenko, scored.
Turkey's "Galatasaray" also reached the Champions League group stage after drawing 1-1 with "Mlada Boleslav." The Turks were helped by a first victory won at home with a score of 5-2.
The first goal of the match fell only in the 73rd minute when "Galatasaray" took the lead through Hasan Sas, and just two minutes before the end of the match, Marian Palatas managed to equalize. There were no more memorable opportunities in the match and the draw sent the Turkish club to the UEFA Champions League group stage.
Meanwhile, another Turkish team "Fenerbahce" clashed with a much stronger opponent - Kiev's "Dynamo" eleven. The match ended in a draw of 2-2, and since Kiev had won the first match at home with a score of 3-1, "Dynamo" also advanced to the UEFA Champions League.
The national celebration in their country was sparked by Bucharest's "Steaua," who defeated Belgian's Liege "Standard" 2-1 at home and advanced to the group stage, as the first match ended in a 2-2 draw.
France's "Lille" and Russian champions Moscow's "CSKA" had no trouble with their opponents, beating them with "dry" scores of 4-0 and 5-0 respectively. Lithuania's national team defender Deividas Šemberas played all matches for the Red Army.
Varsovia's "Legia", the first team from Poland in the Champions League group stage in the last decade, failed to win at home against Donetsk's "Shakhtar" and lost with an overall score of 2-4.
Quite unexpectedly, Bulgarian champions Sofia's "Levski" advanced to the group stage, playing 2-2 in the return match against Verona's "Chievo" and advancing with an aggregate score of 2-4.
Meanwhile, Panevezys "Ekranas" bullies Zagreb's "Dinamo," although for the majority of the match in London they led against the much more titled "Arsenal," but at the end of the match, they conceded two goals and had to settle for a 5-1 loss in the two-match result.
In a crushing defeat in Athens with a score of 0-3, the "Lithuanian" Edinburgh "Hearts" also lost with an overall score of 1-5. Valdas Ivanauskas-led injury-ridden Scottish club, which featured three Lithuanians - Saulius Mikoliūnas, Deividas Česnauskis, and Edgaras Jankauskas, had to score at least two goals in these matches to progress, but their hopes diminished significantly when Frenchman Julien Brellier was shown a red card for a questionable second yellow card in the middle of the first half.
Continuing with just nine players against eleven opponents, the "Hearts" players continued to fight, but it proved to be beyond their capabilities: in the 79th minute, after a mistake by Greek Fysas, Vasilis Lakis, who appeared on the field after a substitution, was fouled by Lithuanian Deividas Česnauskis, and the penalty kick awarded by the Russian referee Yuri Baskakov was confidently converted by Julio Cesar.
Three minutes later, after a long pass from the flank, Nikolaos Lyberopoulos doubled the score with a header, and three minutes later, Edgaras Jankauskas, without the help of the opponents, lost the ball and was outsmarted by Julio Cesar, who entered the penalty area and beat Craig Gordon with a strong shot.
It is worth mentioning that the referee Yuri Baskakov, who made questionable decisions in Wednesday's match, received a lot of criticism and is well known to Lithuanian football fans. In March 2005, during the 2006 World Cup qualifying match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, this referee sent off Lithuanian Mindaugas Stankievičius for a dubious foul just minutes before he scored the equalizer.
Remember that the teams that suffered defeats in the third qualifying round will continue their battles in the UEFA Cup, where they will have to overcome another barrier to reach the group stage.
Statistics
Highlighted clubs advance
Moscow "Spartak" 2 - 1 Liberec "Slovan" (First leg 0-0, aggregate score 2-1) 23' [1 - 0] Mozart 73' [1 - 1] Ivan Hodur (penalty) 79' [2 - 1] Roman Pavlyuchenko
56' Tomaš Zapotocny ("Slovan") sent off the field
Tomas Radzinevicius ("Slovan") was not registered for the match
"Mlada Boleslav" 1 - 1 "Galatasaray" (2-5, 3-6) 73' [0 - 1] Hasan Sas 88' [1 - 1] Marian Palat
Bucharest "Steaua" 2 - 1 Liege "Standard" (2-2, 4-3) 2' [0 - 1] Milan Jovanovic 35' [1 - 1] Valentin Badea 51' [2 - 1] Valentin Badea
82' Sa Pinto ("Standard") sent off the field
"Fenerbahce" 2 - 2 Kiev "Dynamo" (1-3, 3-5) 5' [0 - 1] Maksim Shatshikh 36' [1 - 1] Stephen Appiah 42' [1 - 2] Maksik Shatshikh 57' [2 - 2] Karim Zengin
"Rabotnicki" 0 - 1 "Lille" (0-3, 0-4) 18' [0 - 1] Johan Audel
83' Dragan Jakolevski ("Rabotnicki") sent off the field
"Ruzomberok" 0 - 2 Moscow "CSKA" (0-3, 0-5) 8' [0 - 1] Daniel Carvalho 32' [0 - 2] Vagner Love
Amsterdam "Ajax" 0 - 2 "FC Copenhagen" (2-1, 2-3) 59' [0 - 1] Michael Silberbauer 77' [0 - 2] Thomas Vermaelen (own goal)
Varsovia "Legia" 2 - 3 Donetsk "Shakthar" (0-1, 2-4) 19' [1 - 0] Piotr Wlodarczyk 25' [1 - 1] Ciprian Marica 29' [1 - 2] Fernandinho 45' [1 - 3] Ciprian Marica 88' [2 - 3] Piotr Wlodarczyk
Athens "AEK" 3 - 0 Edinburgh "Hearts" (2-1, 5-1) 79' [1 - 0] Julio Cesar (penalty) 82' [2 - 0] Nikolaos Lyberopoulos 85' [3 - 0] Julio Cesar
30' Julien Brellier ("Hearts") sent off the field 63' Neil McCann ("Hearts") sent off the field
Saulius Mikoliūnas ("Hearts") played the full match Deividas Česnauskis ("Hearts") played until the 81st minute Edgaras Jankauskas ("Hearts") played from the 61st minute
Verona "Chievo" 2 - 2 Sofia "Levski" (0-2, 2-4) 34' [0 - 1] Dimitar Telkiyski 46' [0 - 2] Cedric Bardon 48' [1 - 2] Amauri 81' [2 - 2] Amauri
83' Salvatore Lanna ("Chievo") sent off the field 90' Lucio Wagner ("Levski") sent off the field
London "Arsenal" 2 - 1 Zagreb "Dinamo" (3-0, 5-1) 12' [0 - 1] Eduardo da Silva 77' [1 - 1] Fredrik Ljungberg 90' [2 - 1] Mathieu Flamini
