LONDON: Ludogorets Razgrad’s Champions League dreams came to an early end on Tuesday as they bounced out of the competition in the second qualifying round, one year after they put a scare into Liverpool in the group stage.

The Bulgarian champions held Liverpool 2-2 in Group ‘B’ last season and enjoyed a victory over Basel, before finishing bottom of a group that also included Real Madrid.

But they will not be mixing with such illustrious opponents this season after goals from Gheorghe Andronic and Petru Racu gave 10-man Milsami of Moldova a 2-1 win on the night, and a 3-1 aggregate success.

Wanderson opened the scoring to level the tie in the 27th minute, but Milsami responded a minute later, and despite a second-half red card to Andrei Cojocari, the hosts found a winner late on through Racu.

In the next round of qualifying, Milsami will face Skenderbeu Korce, who advanced 6-4 on aggregate despite a late 3-2 loss at Crusaders.

An early red card to Renato Arapi gave the Northern Irish side hope, but Crusaders could not break through until Stephen O’Flynn’s second-half goal, and later goals from Bernard Berisha and Liridon Latifi put the tie out of reach.

Stoppage-time goals from Matthew Snoddy and Andrew Mitchell reversed the outcome of the second leg, but not the tie as the Albanian side went through.

Cypriot champions APOEL, quarterfinalists in 2012, managed a 1-1 draw at Macedonia’s Vardar to advance on away goals after a goalless first leg.

Tomas De Vincenti opened the scoring on the hour mark, and Blagoja Ljamcevski’s stoppage-time equaliser was not enough to send the hosts through.

APOEL will next face Midtjylland, who saw off Gibraltar’s Lincoln Red Imps 2-0 to complete a 3-0 aggregate win. Martin Pusic and Mikkel Duelund were on the scoresheet for the Danish champions.

Malmo, who defeated Olympiakos in the group stage a year ago, could only manage one goal over two legs against Zalgiris Vilnius, but it was enough to advance 1-0. Anton Tinnerholm scored in the 55th minute to defeat the Lithuanian side.

Next up for the Swedish champions will be Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg, who they beat 4-2 on aggregate in last year’s qualifiers to reach the group stage, with the first leg taking place on July 29.

Serbian champion Partizan are also into the third round of qualifying after a 2-0 victory in Gori over Dila, the triumph in Georgia enough to see them progress 3-0.

Darko Brasanac and Aboubakar Oumarou got the goals for Partizan who will next play the winners of AS Trencín and Steaua Bucharest.

There was drama in Tel Aviv as Maccabi turned a first-leg deficit around against Hibernians, the Israeli title winners running out 5-1 victors on the night — 6-3 on aggregate — to take its place in round three, where they will meet Viktoria Plzen.

A Jorge Pereira own goal put the Israeli side on their way, and though Rodolfo Soares scored early in the second half for the visitors, Maccabi responded with goals from Eran Zahavi, Tal Ben Haim, Nosa Emanuel Igiebor and Eran Zahavi.

After winning their first leg with Ventspils 3-1 last week, HJK only needed Mike Havenaar’s second-half strike to seal their progress in Helsinki. Finland’s champions will face Maribor or Astana in the next round.

Zaven Badoyan gave Pyunik a 1-0 victory over Molde in Armenia, but the striker’s goal was not enough to see his side through as the visitors cruised into the next round 5-1 on aggregate and await either Dinamo Zagreb or Fola Esch.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2015

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