LONDON: Olympiakos and CSKA Moscow moved into the driving seat to reach the Champions League playoff round after posting decisive wins in the first legs of their third qualifying round matches on Tuesday.

A fine brace by striker El Fardou Ben Nabouhane helped Olympiakos triumph 3-1 away to Serbia’s Partizan Belgrade in a tense atmosphere, while Russians CSKA defeated Olympiakos’ Greek compatriots AEK Athens 2-0.

Olympiakos’ ultra fans have close ties with Partizan’s bitter city foes Red Star and the match was played under tight security with no visiting supporters present after the clubs agreed to give up their respective away ticket allocations.

The match was not entirely incident-free, however, as Partizan fans threw firecrackers at Olympiakos midfielder Marko Marin when he went to take a corner and a plastic bottle at a visiting player as the teams went off at halftime.

Olympiakos went ahead in Belgrade after six minutes when Ben Nabouhane scored with a crisp finish after he was put through by Marin.

Partizan levelled four minutes later as their towering Cameroonian striker Leandre Tawamba scrambled the ball home from close range from a sharp low cross by midfielder Marko Jankovic.

Ben Nabouhane restored the visitors lead with a magnificent long-range strike in the 57th minute and Nigerian forward Emmanuel Emenike sealed the win in stoppage-time after rounding goalkeeper Filip Kljajic and slotting the ball into an empty net.

Partizan coach Miroslav Djukic said after the match that his team played aggressively and that he has no objections towards their approach to the match, despite the defeat.

“It is a pity that we received such goals. I cannot blame the team, because one must pay for their mistakes, and it is impossible to win if you make them,” Djukic said, adding that Partizan were on top of the game during the first half.

CSKA scored both of their goals on set pieces against an overmatched AEK with Alan Dzagoev and Pontus Wernbloom scoring either side of halftime.

Vardar Skopje, aiming to become the first Macedonian side to reach the group stage, followed up their shock elimination of Malmo in the last round by beating FC Copenhagen 1-0 at home with a second-half goal from Brazilian Jonathan Balotelli.

Romanian side FCSB, formerly Steaua Bucharest, twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at home to Czech side Viktoria Plzen, Milan Skoda’s first-half penalty gave Slavia Prague a 1-0 home win over BATE Borisov, champions of Belarus for the past 11 seasons, and Azeri champions Qarabag were held 0-0 by Moldovan counterparts Sheriff Tiraspol.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017