LONDON, July 24: Celtic moved into the Champions League third qualifying round with a 2-0 victory in their second -leg against Cliftonville at Parkhead on Tuesday and now face Swedish side Elfsborg.

The Scottish champions, who reached the last 16 earlier this year having enjoyed a famous group stage win over Barcelona, beat Irish League champions Cliftonville 5-0 on aggregate.

Former European champions Steaua Bucharest also booked a place in the third round with a 2-1 win at Vardar to secure a 5-1 aggregate victory over the Macedonian side in Skopje.

Romanian champions Steaua next play Georgians Dinamo Tbilisi, former winners of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, who beat Faroe Islanders Streymur 3-1 away for a 9-2 aggregate win.With so much at stake — UEFA earlier revealed Celtic made 22.2 million pounds (30m euros) from their run to the final 16 of last season’s competition — the Hoops fielded a strong side despite holding a 3-0 advantage from the first leg in Belfast.

After withstanding some early pressure the Cliftonville defence was finally breached in the 16th minute when Efe Ambrose headed the Scottish champions into the lead.Kris Commons and James Forrest then both came close to adding more as the Glasgow giants dominated the first half at Parkhead.

The Belfast part-timers improved after the break but the Hoops made sure of the win when a Georgios Samaras header made it 2-0 in the 70th minute.

Neil Lennon’s side will need to overcome much tougher opposition in the form of Elfsborg for a place in the play-off round of Europe’s elite competition.

The Swedish champions, who won their second leg match against Latvians FC Daugave 4-0 to progress 11-1 on aggregate, will visit Celtic Park on July 31.

Celtic manager Lennon was satisfied with his side’s performance.

“You can’t have everything but we had 30 attempts on goal so our shooting wasn’t the best,” Lennon said.

“We were a little bit rusty in that department but the back four are looking pretty good at the minute and that is another clean sheet. It was a good game to get under their belt before Elfsborg next week.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv will face Swiss champions and last season’s Europa League semi-finalists Basel, who lost to eventual trophy winners Chelsea, by beating Gyor 2-1 for a 4-1 aggregate win.

FH of Iceland beat Ekranas 2-1 to wrap up a 3-1 aggregate success and set up a tie with Austrian champions Austria Vienna, who like Basel enter the qualifiers in the third round. BATE Borisov, the Belarus club that finished third in a group that contained Bayern Munich last term, lost 1-0 at Kazakh side Shakhter Karangady to exit 2-0 on aggregate.

Ole Gunnar Solskjr’s Molde beat Sligo Rovers 2-0 after a 1-0 win in Ireland thanks to goals from Martin Linnes and Aliou Coly as they aim to reach the group stage after a 14-year gap.

Czech champions Viktoria Plzen earned a hard-fought 2-1 win at Zeljeznicar Sarajevo to go through 6-4 on aggregate and set up a tie with Estonian champions JK Nomme Kalju.

Kalju celebrated their first win in Europe with goals from Yankuba Ceesay and Damiano Quintieri giving them a 2-1 win over HJK Helsinki after the first leg was goalless.

Dinamo Zagreb also advanced with a 1-0 win over CS Fola Esch thanks to Andrej Kramaric’s late penalty for a comprehensive 6-0 aggregate win and the Croatians now play FC Sheriff of Moldova.

Results: Celtic 2 Cliftonville FC 0 (Celtic advanced 5-0 on aggregate) Dinamo Zagreb 1 CS Fola Esch 0

(Dinamo Zagreb advanced 6-0 on aggregate) FK Daugava Daugavpils 0 IF Elfsborg 4

(IF Elfsborg advanced 11-1 on aggregate) FK Sutjeska 0 Sheriff Tiraspol 5

(Sheriff Tiraspol advanced 6-1 on aggregate) FK Zeljeznicar 1 Viktoria Plzen 2

(Viktoria Plzen advanced 6-4 on aggregate) Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaroar 2 FK Ekranas 1

(Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaroar advanced 3-1 on aggregate) Maccabi Tel-Aviv 2 Gyor ETO 1

(Maccabi Tel-Aviv advanced 4-1 on aggregate) Molde FK 2 Sligo Rovers 0

(Molde FK advanced 3-0 on aggregate) Nomme Kalju (Estonia) 2 HJK Helsinki 1

(Nomme Kalju advanced 2-1 on aggregate) Shakhter Karagandy 1 BATE Borisov 0

(Shakhter Karagandy advanced 2-0 on aggregate) Skenderbeu Korce 1 Neftchi Baku 0

(Skenderbeu Korce advanced 1-0 on aggregate, AET) Vardar Skopje 1 Steaua Bucharest 2

(Steaua Bucharest advanced 5-1 on aggregate) EB/Streymur 1 Dinamo Tbilisi 3

(Dinamo Tbilisi advanced 9-2 on aggregate).—Agencies