MONACO: Monaco’s Nabil Dirar (top) challenges Valencia’s Jose Gaya during their Champions League play-off second leg match at the Stade Louis II.—Reuters

LONDON: Spain became the first country to have five teams in the Champions League group stage in one season after Valencia squeezed past Monaco 4-3 on aggregate in the playoff round despite a 2-1 defeat on Tuesday.

The two-time finalists joined holders Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla, who got an automatic berth as last season’s winners of Europe’s second-tier Europa League.

On a night of pulsating action, Malmo, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Shakhtar Donetsk also booked money-spinning group stage spots in Europe’s premier club competition.

Former Manchester City forward Alvaro Negredo put Valencia in the driving seat with a deft fourth-minute chip but the Spaniards were forced to hang on after Andrea Raggi and Elderson revived Monaco’s hopes in the principality.

“It was important to get an away goal and we managed that early in the match which helped calm things down,” Negredo told Spanish television. “In the second half they pressed forward and we were tiring but thankfully we held on.”

Italian defender Raggi fired the ball past Australian goalkeeper Mathew Ryan from the edge of the area in the 18th and Nigerian defender Elderson knocked the ball into the net after Ryan had saved from Thomas Lemar in the 75th as last season’s quarter-finalists Monaco exited.

“It hurts, but Monaco put up a great performance tonight,” said Raggi. “It was the game in Valencia that did for us but our target now is to compete strongly for the league title.”

Another side who reached the knockout stages last season also failed to get over the play-off hurdle this time round as Basel, who progressed at the expense of Liverpool in last season’s competition, exited after a 1-1 draw in Israel against Maccabi saw the hosts progress on the away goals rule, the tie finishing 3-3 on aggregate.

Maccabi progressed to the group phase for the first time in 11 years after Eran Zahavi scored his third goal of the tie in the 24th after Luca Zuffi opened for Basel with a 25-metre free kick.

MALMO OUST CELTIC

Swedish champions Malmo made the group stage for a second straight season after captain Markus Rosenberg and a Dedryck Boyata own goal gave them a bruising 2-0 win and 4-3 aggregate triumph over Celtic to overturn a 3-2 first-leg away deficit.

Former European Cup winners Celtic lost their lead after Rosenberg met a corner and used his shoulder to deflect in the ball in the 23rd.

Malmo missed several chances before Boyata’s desperate attempt to clear in a goalmouth scramble ended with the Celtic defender sliding the ball into his own net in the 55th.

“We are at least as good as last year, particularly at home,” Rosenberg told Sweden’s TV6 after Malmo kept a 10th straight clean sheet at home in European qualifying. “A hard day’s work, we did what we said we would do and the crowd were great as always.”

The cost to Celtic may be felt immediately as it could prompt talented defender Virgil van Dijk to jump at the chance of a prestigious move to English Premier League side Southampton.

Celtic manager Ronny Deila, though, is loathe to part with him.

“We don’t have to sell Virgil van Dijk, but you never know in football, “said the Norwegian.

“The hype about the Champions League is a big thing. Everybody wants it so badly. You have to deal with it but we looked very stressed. We didn’t look like we wanted to go out and play football. We have a lot of young players coming through but this was a hard lesson for us.”

MARLOS IMPRESSES

Ukrainian side Shakhtar did make it through — they have appeared in the group stage on every occasions since the 2009/10 campaign — but were made to work hard for it drawing 2-2 at home to Rapid Vienna to qualify 3-2 on aggregate.

Marlos scored the only goal of the first leg for Shakhtar and the impressive Brazilian was on target again in the 10th minute, curling a beauty of a shot past the Rapid Vienna goalkeeper.

Vienna rallied and were briefly in line to progress on away goals after Louis Schaub netted in the 13th and Steffen Hofmann scored from a free-kick four minutes later before Olexandr Gladkiy forced the final twist in a rip-roaring first half when he finished off a direct passing move in the 27th.

The second-half was less of a ripper and the visitors frustrations ended with Mario Sonnleitner being red-carded four minutes from time for a second bookable offence as the Austrian side’s absence from the group stage was extended to 10 years.

Dinamo qualified for the third time in the past five seasons, beating Skenderbeu 4-1 at home to complete a 6-2 overall victory against the Albanians.

Algeria striker El Arabi Hilal Soudani netted a fine brace, with Jeremy Taravel and Armin Hodzic also on the score-sheet for the Croatians. Esquerdinha scored for Skenderbeu.

The group phase draw takes place on Thursday.—AP

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play