LONDON: Wolverhampton Wanderers celebrated their biggest aggregate win in Europe on Thursday after the Premier League side beat Armenia’s Pyunik 4-0 on the night, and 8-0 overall, to set up a Europa League playoff with Serie A’s Torino.

The winner of the home and away legs on August 22 and 29, with the first match played in Italy, will progress to the group stage.

Substitute Diogo Jota scored with an acrobatic late scissor kick to wrap up an easy victory in front of a packed Molineux, with three of the goals flowing in a 10-minute spell after the break.

Wolves, seventh in the league last season, are competing in Europe for the first time since they played in the 1980-81 UEFA Cup.

New Portuguese signing Pedro Neto opened the scoring with a debut goal in the 54th, with teenage midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White putting the hosts 2-0 up in the 58th and Ruben Vinagre bagging the third from close range in the 64th.

Torino beat Shakhtyor Soligorsk 6-1 on aggregate after a 1-1 second leg draw in Belarus to make it past the third qualifying round.

Nikolai Yanush salvaged some pride for the hosts levelling on the night from the spot in stoppage time after Simone Zaza had given the Italians the lead 10 minutes from time, but Torino were already well out of sight.

Torino, who finished seventh in Serie A last season, are only in the competition after AC Milan accepted in June a voluntary ban from European football for the coming season over breaches of financial fair play rules.

Jonathan de Guzman’s sole goal helped Eintracht Frankfurt beat Lichtenstein’s Vaduz 1-0 and 6-0 on aggregate, the midfielder hammering home a rebound from the edge of the box into the top-left corner just past the half-hour mark to set up a playoff against Strasbourg.

Strasbourg produced a workman-like 1-0 win over Lokomotiv Plovdiv to advance 2-0 on aggregate.

Chinese striker Wu Lei opened the scoring as Espanyol assured their place in the playoffs with a 3-0 home win over Swiss side Luzern.

Espanyol were always clear favorites to progress after a 3-0 win in last week’s away leg and Wu netted an early header and Victor Campuzan struck two goals before the break to book a tie against Ukranian side Zoyra, who knocked CSKA Sofia out of the competition.

Feyenoord, former European champions and two-time winners of the Europa League’s predecessor UEFA Cup, also had easy passage to the playoffs after a 1-1 draw with Dinamo Tbilisi that saw them through 5-1 on aggregate.

Rangers saw off FC Midtjylland 3-1 at Ibrox for a 7-3 aggregate with Alfredo Morelos scoring twice either side of a Sheyi Ojo strike.

Fellow Scots Aberdeen, however, lost 2-0 to Rijeka of Croatia and went out 4-0 on aggregate.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019