It was mostly a good night for Cyprus’ Europa League teams in the second qualifying round on Thursday.
In the most exciting game, Apollon beat Irish side Shamrock Rovers 3-1 in Limassol to seal a 4-3 aggregate win.
The match went to extra time after the scores were locked at 3-3 on aggregate after 90 minutes, following a 2-1 Apollon win. The home side had been playing with 10 men since the 66th minute after the sending-off of Fotios Papoulis
After Rovers’ Lee Grace was sent off just four minutes into the extra period, Apollon substitute Adrian Sardinero pounced seven minutes later in what turned out to be the winning goal.
Elsewhere, Aris Thessalonikis knocked out AEL with a 1-0 win in Limassol after last week’s first leg in Greece ended goalless.
Ivan Trickovski had a memorable night, scoring all four goals as AEK thrashed Levski Sofia 4-0 in Bulgaria for an easy 7-0 aggregate victory.
In Greece Both Aris and Atromitos will join AEK in the third qualifying round of the Europa League after recording victories in their second-leg games on Thursday, to help Greece’s UEFA ranking too.
Aris scored at Larnaca that elusive goal it had failed to get at home against AEL Limassol, from the 12th minute of the return game in Cyprus on Thursday. The goal modestly came from the penalty spot, courtesy of Nicolas Diguiny, but it was enough to give the Thessaloniki club a 1-0 aggregate victory and the ticket to the next round.
That is where the Yellows are set to face Norwegian side Molde.
Atromitos added a 3-2 home win to its 2-1 away victory over Dunajska Streda to advance on a 5-3 score, but it was not so comfortable when the Slovaks equalized 2-2 on Thursday and threatened with a winning goal at Peristeri.
On the 22nd Alexandros Katranis gave Atromitos the lead and Giorgos Manousos doubled it with a penalty kick six minutes on, but Dunajska Streda went level through Eric Ramirez and Zsolt Kalmar in the second half, before Spyros Risvanis confirmed Atromitos will play Polish team Legia in the third qualifying round on August 8 and 15.
AEK’s opponent in the same round will be Romania’s Universitatea Craiova.
Wolves progressed to the Europa League third qualifying round as a 4-1 victory over Crusaders in Belfast secured a 6-1 aggregate win.
Ryan Bennett’s own goal gave the Irish League hosts hope but Raul Jimenez quickly fired in an equaliser.
Bennett made amends with a powerful header to make it 2-1 and Jimenez added the third courtesy of a sweet strike.
Jordan Forsythe’s own goal in a low key second half sealed the win with Armenia’s Pyunik next up for Wolves.
