Celtic, Anderlecht through in CL

GLASGOW, Scotland  ●  Celtic have defeated HJK Helsinki 2-0 in their Champions League third qualifying round second leg to advance to the final play-offs.

The Scottish Premier League club scored twice in the second half to win in Helsinki, with Joe Ledley and Georgios Samaras hitting the back of the net on Wednesday to wrap up a 4-1 aggregate win.

Ledley opened the scoring in the 67th minute after a cross from the right was whipped towards him at the back post.

Instead of heading the ball past Helsinki’s goalkeeper, the 25-year-old Welshman used his chest to score.

Despite losing Victor Wanyama to a second yellow card in the 71st minute, Celtic doubled their lead in the closing stages, after Ledley set up Samaras to slot the ball into the bottom corner.

In Lithuania, Anderlecht of Belgium smashed Ekranas 6-0 to complete an 11-0 aggregate victory.

Anderlecht had six separate goal-scorers with Oleksandr Iakovenko adding two assists to his goal in first-half injury time.

Cesar Santin scored in the fifth minute of second-half injury time to send Copenhagen through to the final play-off round of Champions League qualifying at the expense of Club Brugge.

With neither side having scored in the first leg, Copenhagen trailed the home side 2-1 with less than 15 minutes left.

But after Cristian Bolanos equalised in the 78th minute, Santin struck the winner for the visitors to triumph 3-2 in the second leg and on aggregate.

Dinamo Zagreb scored four times at home to smash Sheriff 5-0 on aggregate, Panathinaikos hit three goals to triumph 5-0 on aggregate over Motherwell and David Degen scored the decisive goal as Basel defeated Molde 2-1 over two legs.

Dutch forward Dirk Kuyt scored two goals as Fenerbahce comfortably overcame Vaslui 4-1 on Wednesday to advance to the next round, while Helsingborg joined the Turkish club in the next round after Thomas Sorum hit a hat-trick as his side won 3-1 over Slask Wroclaw.

Other teams to move through to the Champions League play-offs on Wednesday were Maribor, Ironi Kiryat Shmona, CFR Cluj and AEL Limassol.

This means the 20 teams in the hat for Friday’s UEFA Champions League play-off draw have been confirmed, with the likes of Celtic FC, Fenerbahçe SK and Udinese Calcio aiming for a group stage place.

Whereas the clubs in the champions route play-offs are those who advanced from the third qualifying round, there are six teams who join the league route at this stage.

For Friday’s draw, which starts at 12.00CET, there are ten teams respectively in the league route and champions route. Five in each section are seeded according to their club ranking established at the beginning of the season, and will be drawn against the other five.

UEFA Champions League play-off round draw lineup

Bolded clubs are seeded

League route:

SC Braga (POR)*

FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)

Panathinaikos FC (GRE)

FC København (DEN)

FC Spartak Moskva (RUS)*

Fenerbahçe SK (TUR)

Udinese Calcio (ITA)*

LOSC Lille Métropole (FRA)*

Málaga CF (ESP)*

VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach (GER)*

*clubs who enter at the play-off stage

Champions route:

FC Basel 1893 (SUI)

RSC Anderlecht (BEL)

Celtic FC (SCO)

FC BATE Borisov (BLR)

GNK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)

CFR 1907 Cluj (ROU)

Helsingborgs IF (SWE)

NK Maribor (SVN)

AEL Limassol FC (CYP)

Hapoel Kiryat Shmona FC (ISR)