Seven teams booked a spot in the 2012-13 Champions League playoff round today, the final step before joining the group stages.
UEFA Champions League 2013: Fenerbahce, Lyon among seven teams advancing to playoff round
Fenerbahce and Lyon were among the seven teams who moved on to the playoff round, the final stop before the group stages of the tournament.
The two biggest names playing today were Fenerbahce and Lyon, both of whom advanced into the next round. Fenerbahce overcame a first leg draw to defeat SV Salzburg 4-1 on aggregate, while Lyon’s 1-0 win against Grasshoppers was enough to see them through.
FC Basel advanced after holding on against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the wildest match of the day. Basel led 1-0 after the first leg and opened up a 4-0 aggregate lead after 32 minutes in the second leg. Maccabi roared back scoring three times over the next 23 minutes, but they were unable to find two more goals and Basel moved on to the playoff round.
Shakhter Karagandy’s unlikely run nearly came to a crashing halt after they gave up a 3-0 first leg advantage in the opening 27 minutes against Skenderbeu, but goals from Sergey Khizhnichenko and Maksat Baizhanov put Karagandy back in front to stay.
Just a reminder, all advancing teams enter a playoff round that will either send them on to the group stages of the Champions League or the Europa League. All teams that lose in this round of the tournament will move to a Europa League playoff round.
Here’s a recap of all the second leg matches (aggregate score in parenthesis, advancing team in bold):
Maccabi Tel-Aviv 3-3 (3-4) FC Basel
Steaua Bucuresti 1-1 (3-1) Dinamo Tbilisi
NK Maribor 0-0 (1-1) Apoel Nicosia - Maribor advances on away goals
Skenderbeu 3-2 (3-5) Shakhter Karagandy
Fenerbahce 3-1 (4-2) SV Salzburg
Partizan Belgrade 0-1 (1-3) Ludogorets Razgrad
Grasshoppers 0-1 (0-2) Lyon
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