Madrid Aug 23 (IANS) Sevilla Napoli Celtic Maribor and Olympiakos emerged triumphant from the second-leg UEFA Champions League qualifiers. Though all of the favourites advanced football fans of Sevilla and Celtic endured some nervous moments.
Sevilla who prevailed 2-1 in the first leg in Turkey conceded a goal to Istanbul Basaksehir s Eljero Elia in the 17th minute of Tuesday s contest at the Sanchez Pizjuan reports Efe.
Sergio Escudero equalised for the hosts in the second half and Wissam Ben Yedder made it 2-1 on the night for the Spanish club with about 15 minutes left in regulation.
Seven minutes later however Basaksehir pulled level with a goal by Edin Visca and the Turkish side would have claimed the Champions League berth if Emre Belozoglu s free kick in the 90th minute hadn t hit the post allowing Sevilla to advance 4-3 on aggregate.
In Nice the home side fell 0-2 to Napoli who cruised 4-0 on aggregate with goals coming from Jose Callejon and Lorenzo Insigne.
Olympiakos held Croatia s Rijeka 1-0 for a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Maribor blanked Hapoel Beer Sheva 1-0 for an aggregate score of 2-2 advancing by virtue of their away goal in the first leg in Israel.
The day s most exciting contest unfolded in the capital of Kazakhstan where Astana fans were able -- if only briefly -- to dream of one of the most dramatic comebacks in the history of the competition.
After suffering a 5-0 rout in the first leg in Glasgow the Kazakh side built up a 4-1 lead before giving up two goals in the final 20 minutes to end up at 4-3 giving Celtic an 8-4 victory on aggregate.
--IANS
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