We’re halfway through the Europa League playoff round as all the first-leg matches are now completed. Here’s a recap of the action from today’s matches.
UEFA Europa League 2013: Tottenham, Swansea are big winners in the playoff round first leg
After the first-leg matches, several notable names can start making tentative plans for joining the group stages while others have work left to do.
Jamie McDonald
In the early games, Tottenham hammered Dinamo Tbilisi in Georgia, with Roberto Soldado scoring twice. It's going to take a combination of a miracle and one of the greatest meltdowns in history for Spurs to not advance to the group stages. Dynamo Kiev won, 3-2, against Aktobe Lento and although they still have work to do, they have three away goals after the first leg. Real Betis also won on the road, 2-1 over Jablonec.
Swansea City were big winners as well in the later games, crushing Petrolul Ploiesti, 5-1, behind a brace from Wayne Routledge. Spartak Moscow were held to a draw by St Gallen, while Tromso defeated Besiktas, though the visitors did get an away goal.
In the day’s biggest upset, Italian side Udinese were defeated at home by Liberec, 3-1. Fellow Italian club Fiorentina held on for a 2-1 away victory over Grasshoppers.
Sevilla got a scare from Slask Wroclaw but were able to pull away late for a 4-1 win thanks to goals from Marko Marin and Kevin Gameiro.
The second-leg matches will be played on Thursday, Aug. 29.
Here’s a full list of results:
Aktobe Lento 2-3 Dynamo Kiev
Dinamo Tbilisi 0-5 Tottenham Hotspur
FK Qarabag 0-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Jablonec 1-2 Real Betis
Kuban Krasnodar 1-0 Feyenoord Rotterdam
Atromitos 1-3 AZ Alkmaar
Maccabi Haifa 2-0 FC Astra Ploiesti
Minsk 0-2 Standard Liege
Esbjerg 4-3 St Etienne
Molde 0-2 FK Rubin Kazan
Nomme Kalju 1-3 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
St Gallen 1-1 Spartak Moscow
SV Salzburg 5-0 VMFD Zalgiris
FK Kukesi 0-2 Trabzonspor
Apollon Limassol 2-0 Nice
Elfsborg 1-1 FC Nordsjaelland
FH Hafnarfjordur 0-2 Racing Genk
Pandurii Targu-Jiu 0-1 Braga
Tromso 2-1 Besiktas
Swansea City 5-1 Petrolul Ploiesti
Chornomorets 1-0 Skenderbeu
Partizan Belgrade 1-0 FC Thun
Rijeka 2-1 VfB Stuttgart
Vojvodina 1-1 Sheriff Tiraspol
Udinese 1-3 Liberec
Zulte-Waregem 1-1 Apoel Nicosia
Grasshoppers 1-2 Fiorentina
Rapid Vienna 1-0 Dila Gori
Estoril 2-0 FC Pasching
Sevilla FC 4-1 Slask Wroclaw
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