Europa League Roundup, Aug. 26

Europa League Roundup, Aug. 26

Published Aug. 26, 2010 11:29 p.m. ET

English clubs Liverpool and Manchester City qualified for the Europa League group stage on Thursday along with Italian sides Juventus, Napoli and Palermo.

The German trio of Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart also secured spots in Friday's draw, but Celtic, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Feyenoord and Aston Villa were all eliminated.

Liverpool won 2-1 at Turkish club Trabzonspor after conceding an early goal to go through 3-1 on aggregate, while Man City defeated Timisoara 2-0 to advance 3-0 on aggregate.

English rival Aston Villa crashed out after losing 3-2 to Rapid Vienna and 4-3 over two legs.

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Alessandro Del Piero's goal secured Juventus' 1-0 victory over Sturm Graz to progress 3-1 overall, and Napoli downed Elfsborg 2-0 after having led 1-0 from the first leg. Palermo advanced 5-3 on aggregate despite losing 3-2 at Maribor.

Liverpool's victory came without captain Steven Gerrard and striker Fernando Torres.

The five-time winners of the more illustrious European Cup went behind in the fourth minute when Colombian striker Teofilo Gutierrez found the net.

Liverpool equalized in the 83rd minute due to an own-goal from Giray Kacar, who was under pressure from Reds forward David Ngog. Dirk Kuyt struck five minutes later to seal Liverpool's progress.

"It was very tough," Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said. "The lads showed great character and concentration ... not just to go through but to beat them with some of our top players not playing."

It was a more comfortable night for Man City, which held a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

Shaun Wright-Phillips extended City's advantage after a latching onto Patrick Vieira's through ball in the 43rd. Dedryck Boyata headed in his first goal for City from David Silva's free kick in the 59th.

"It is not like the Champions League, sure, but it is important," City manager Roberto Mancini said.

Villa went out despite twice leading after Gabriel Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey scored, but Stiliyan Petrov had a penalty saved. Atdhe Nuhiu, Mario Sonnleitner and Rene Gartler hit goals for Rapid Vienna.

Dortmund downed FK Qarabag 1-0 after having won the home leg 4-0, Leverkusen beat Tavriya Symferopol 3-1 to advance 6-1 and Stuttgart was held 2-2 by Slovan Bratislava but went through 3-2.

PSV Eindhoven wiped out a 1-0 first-leg deficit against Sibir Novosibirsk to progress 5-1, but Dutch rival Feyenoord was beaten 2-0 by Ghent having won the first leg 1-0.

Goals from Evaldo, Nuno Coelho and Yannick Djalo gave Sporting Lisbon a 3-0 win at Brondby to win 3-2 overall.

There will be no Scottish teams in the Europa League. Celtic squandered a 2-0 first-leg led over Utrecht to lose 4-0 with Ricky van Wolfswinkel scoring a hat trick for the Dutch side. Motherwell's 1-0 loss to Danish side OB completed a 3-1 aggregate defeat and Dundee United's 1-1 draw with AEK saw it go out 2-1 on aggregate.

Apart from Besiktas routing Helsinki 4-0 to build on its 2-0 first-leg win, it was a bleak night for Turkish sides, with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce following Trabzonspor out of the competition.

Galatasaray went out on away goals amid late drama at Karpaty Lviv, which had drawn 2-2 in Turkey last week.

Serhiy Kuznetsov had been sent off for Lviv with around 20 minutes to go and Aydin Yilmaz put Galatasaray ahead in the first minute of stoppage time. But there was still time for Artem Fedeskiy to score and secure a 3-3 aggregate draw.

Fenerbahce was held to a 1-1 draw by PAOK Thessaloniki, which went through courtesy of its 1-0 win in Greece.

Lausanne, which qualified as a beaten Swiss Cup finalist, pulled off a surprise result by eliminating Lokomotiv Moscow in a penalty shootout after the first leg ended 1-1, just like last week.

"We're a small team from the Swiss second division so getting into the Europa League is a big achievement for us," Lausanne coach Martin Rueda said.

Former European champion Steaua Bucharest also required penalties to oust Grasshopper, while Paris Saint-Germain lost 4-3 to Maccabi Tel-Aviv but advanced 5-4 on aggregate.

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