LONDON: Zenit St Petersburg and Porto both put a foot in the Champions League group stage with 1-0 away wins as home teams struggled in their playoff round, first-leg ties on Wednesday.

Oleg Shatov’s first-half strike put Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit in control of their tie against Belgium’s Standard Liege and a second-half effort from Hector Herrera was enough for two-time champions Porto at Lille.

Former European Cup winners Celtic took advantage of a reprieve from UEFA to play in the competition by drawing 1-1 at Maribor to ensure all five home teams failed to win on Wednesday.

APOEL Nicosia are favoured to advance next week in Cyprus after drawing 1-1 against Aalborg in Denmark while BATE Borisov took a 1-1 draw back to Belarus after Slovan Bratislava got an 80th-minute equaliser from veteran Slovakia forward Robert Vittek.

Second-leg matches are played next Tuesday, two days before the 32-team group stage is drawn in Monaco. Each club is then guaranteed at last 8.6 million euros ($11.5 million) in prize money from UEFA.

Zenit’s goal in the 16th minute was a superb team effort, beginning when Domenico Criscito sent a clever pass into the path of Danny. The Portuguese player chested the ball down for Hulk and the Brazilian picked out Shatov who side-footed home from near the penalty spot.

Danny and Jose Rondon both struck the woodwork in a dominant performance by the Russian league leaders who have four straight wins in their national league.

Porto and Lille both finished third in their national leagues last season, and it was Portugal which looked the classier act on this evidence.

The only goal, in the 61st minute, at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy had a World Cup flavour to it.

Porto’s Mexico midfielder Herrera pounced from close-range after Lille’s Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama parried a header by Jackson Martinez, the Colombia forward.

Lille rarely threatened, though defender Sebastien Corchia shot over from eight metres in the 45th after his first shot was blocked.

“We played a very serious game, against very serious and difficult opponents,” said Porto coach Julen Lopetegui, whose side have only missed out on the group stage four times since it started in 1992.

“We had more than enough chances to guarantee the result and now we have to continue working to make sure of a game result in the second-leg.”

Celtic, who were reinstated to Europe’s premier club competition after Poland’s Legia Warsaw were punished for fielding an ineligible player, made a bright start against the Slovenian champions when Callum McGregor gave them a sixth-minute lead after seizing on a loose ball after Jo Inge Berget’s shot was saved.

Maribor, seeking a first group-stage appearance for 15 years, levelled eight minutes later when Damjan Bohar sidefooted past Craig Gordon.

Celtic would have retaken the lead but Stefan Johansen, standing on the goalline, inadvertently blocked team-mate Virgil van Dijk’s header but the Scottish champions will remain confident of completing the job in Tuesday’s return leg at Parkhead.

“I think we were closer to winning the game than they were,” Celtic boss Ronny Deila told SkySports afterwards. “The performance was good, I’m pleased and it’s going to be very exciting to play them at Celtic Park next week.” Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014