PARIS: Tottenham Hotspur closed in on a place in the group stage of the Europa League on Thursday after coming from behind to win 2-1 away to AEL Limassol in Cyprus in their play-off first leg.

The north London side are looking to reach the group stage for the fourth season running, and late goals by Roberto Soldado and Harry Kane have them in the driving seat ahead of next week’s return at White Hart Lane.

However, their fellow Premier League side Hull City have work to do after losing 1-0 away to Belgian Cup holders Lokeren.

Tottenham’s quest did not get off to the best of starts at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium in Larnaca.

Spanish striker Adrian Sardinero opened the scoring in the 14th minute for AEL, who finished second in the Cypriot top flight last season and parachuted into the Europa League after losing to Zenit St Petersburg in the Champions League third qualifying round.

Slack play in midfield by Paulinho created the chance for Sardinero to run through and beat Hugo Lloris, sparking wild celebrations from the home fans.

Paulinho was one of those brought into the starting line-up by Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino as seven changes were made from Saturday’s 1-0 win at West Ham United.

Questions have been asked about how seriously the new Spurs coach will take the Europa League, and his team looked second best for long spells.

However, they were rescued in the final 20 minutes by another two players promoted to the starting line-up in the heat of the Mediterranean.

Kane saw a shot turned onto the woodwork by home goalkeeper Karim Fegrouch before Soldado got the equaliser in the 74th minute.

This time Kane fed substitute Erik Lamela, whose terrific pass was emphatically hammered home by the Spanish striker.

And Spurs completed the turnaround with 10 minutes to go thanks to another piece of inspiration from Lamela and a finish from the 21-year-old Kane.

Among the other winners on the night were Spanish sides Villarreal and Real Sociedad, Borussia Moenchengladbach and PSV Eindhoven, who all joined Inter Milan, 3-0 victors away to Stjarnan of Iceland on Wednesday.

Results (play-off round, first leg): Thursday: At Aktobe, Kazakhstan:

Aktobe (KAZ) 0 Legia Warsaw (POL) 1

At Astana:

Astana (KAZ) 0Villarreal (ESP) 3

At Khimki, Russia:

Dynamo Moscow (RUS) 2Omonia Nicosia (CYP) 2

At Gliwice, Poland:

Ruch Chorzow (POL) 0Metalist Kharkiv (UKR) 0

At Baku:

Qarabag (AZE) 0FC Twente Enschede (NED) 0

At Helsinki:

HJK Helsinki (FIN) 2Rapid Vienna (AUT) 1

At Larnaca, Cyprus:

AEL Limassol (CYP) 1Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) 2

At Eindhoven, Netherlands:

PSV Eindhoven (NED) 1Shakhtyor Soligorsk (BLR) 0

At Karabuk, Turkey:

Karabukspor (TUR) 1Saint-Etienne (FRA) 0

At Boras, Sweden:

Elfsborg (SWE) 2Rio Ave (POR) 1

At Borisov, Belarus:

Dinamo Minsk (BLR) 2Nacional (POR) 0

At Ploiesti, Romania:

Petrolul (ROM) 1Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) 3

At Nicosia:

Apollon Limassol (CYP) 1Lokomotiv Moscow (RUS) 1

At Bern:

Young Boys (SUI) 3Debrecen (HUN) 1

At Kiev:

Zorya Luhansk (UKR) 1Feyenoord (NED) 1

At Athens:

Panathinaikos (GRE) 4 Midtjylland (DEN) 1

At Trabzon, Turkey:

Trabzonspor (TUR) 2 Rostov (RUS) 0

At Zwolle, Netherlands:

Zwolle (NED) 1 Sparta Prague (CZE) 1

At Chisinau:

Zimbru Chisinau (MDA) 1PAOK (GRE) 0

At Belgrade:

Partizan Belgrade (SRB) 3Neftci PFK (AZE) 2

At St Gallen, Switzerland:

Grasshoppers (SUI) 1Club Brugge (BEL) 2

At Zlate Moravce, Slovakia:

Spartak Trnava (SVK) 1FC Zurich (SUI) 3

At Tripoli:

Asteras (GRE) 2 Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR) 0

At San Sebastian, Spain:

Real Sociedad (ESP) 1Krasnodar (RUS) 0

At Lyon, France:

Lyon (FRA) 1Astra Giurgiu (ROM) 2

At Lokeren, Belgium:

Lokeren (BEL) 1Hull City (ENG) 0

At Dugopolje, Croatia:

RNK Split (CRO) 0 Torino (ITA) 0

At Sarajevo:

Sarajevo (BIH) 2Borussia Moenchengladbach (GER) 3

At Rijeka, Croatia:

Rijeka (CRO) 1Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA) 0

Wednesday’s results:

At Kiev:

Dnipro (UKR) 2 Hajduk Split (CRO) 1

At Reykjavik:

Stjarnan (ISL) 0 Inter Milan (ITA) 3.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014