Madrid Aug 24 (IANS) Liverpool Sporting Lisbon Qarabag CSKA Moscow and APOEL Nicosia will advance to the Champions League group stage after the final qualifying round.
While five-time European kings Liverpool are returning to the continent s elite club competition after an absence of two years Qarabag becomes the first team from Azerbaijan to reach the Champions League on Wednesday reports Efe.
The Reds 2-1 winners in last week s first leg away to Hoffenheim scored three times in the space of 21 minutes in front of their supporters at Anfield to take the second leg 4-2 for a 6-3 aggregate victory.
Emre Can posted his first two-goal game as a professional while Liverpool newcomer Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino had one each.
Mark Uth and Sandro Wagner scored for Hoffenheim.
Sporting who had to settle for 0-0 in the first leg in Lisbon pounded Steaua Bucarest 5-1 in the Romanian capital getting goals from Seydou Doumbia Marcos Acuña Gelson Martines Bas Dost and Rodrigo Battaglia.
Goals by Georgi Schennikov and Alan Dzagoev gave CSKA Moscow a 2-0 home win over Switzerland s Young Boys to bring the Russian s club advantage to 3-0 on aggregate.
Leading 2-0 after the first leg APOEL Nicosia held Slavia Prague 0-0 on Wednesday to claim their spot in the 32-team Champions League group stage.
Qarabag who won the first leg in Baku 1-0 lost 2-1 to Copenhagen in the second but qualified for Champions play on the strength of their away goal courtesy of Dino Ndlovu.
--IANS
sam/mr
