Bodo return to Champions League, Azerbaijan’s Sabah deny Israeli Beer-Sheva

Scottish champions Celtic thumped by LASK arsenic Sabah sound retired Hapoel Beer-Sheva with a precocious extremity successful the qualifying round.

The UEFA Champions League’s feel-good story, Bodo/Glimt, are backmost for a 2nd season, joined by LASK of Austria and debutants Sabah of Azerbaijan.

Bodo/Glimt eased done the 2nd limb of their qualifying playoff connected Tuesday against NEC Nijmegen, and Sabah, a nine formed 8 years ago, denied Israeli Premier League champions Hapoel Beer-Sheva successful other clip aft a last-gasp extremity successful regularisation clip levelled the aggregate score.

LASK seemed each but retired aft a half-hour connected Tuesday, trailing 4-0 connected aggregate to Celtic, who had taken a three-goal triumph from the archetypal limb past week successful Glasgow.

Still, LASK had already rained scoring chances connected Celtic’s extremity adjacent earlier falling further behind, and someway lone retrieved 3 goals of the shortage erstwhile the timepiece passed 90 minutes.

Then Florian Flecker’s close-range header forced other time, during which the Scottish champions continued to implode.

A 5th unanswered extremity for LASK came successful the 109th infinitesimal by Samuel Adeniran, who past had a punishment saved arsenic the people stayed 5-1 connected the nighttime and 5-4 connected aggregate. Celtic driblet into the second-tier Europa League.

Four much playoff second-leg games connected Wednesday volition corroborate the last entries successful the 36-team main phase. The gully for those games is made connected Thursday successful Monaco.

Bodo/Glimt’s storied bid of wins successful January and February against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan makes the Norwegian sportfishing municipality squad look similar Champions League veterans compared with Sabah.

On Tuesday, Dutch newcomers NEC mislaid 3-0 arsenic the latest visitors to the Arctic Circle suffered connected the artificial turf wrong Glimt’s tiny Aspmyra Stadium. The aggregate people was 6-1.

Any anticipation of a comeback ended aft 3 minutes erstwhile NEC goalkeeper Gonzalo Crettaz handled the shot extracurricular his punishment country and was sent off.

Sabah unafraid debut with precocious triumph implicit Hapoel Beer-Sheva

Sabah shot nine was created successful September 2017 and, precisely 9 years later, volition debut successful the Champions League’s main contention aft a melodramatic qualifying playoff win, joining Italy’s Como arsenic Champions League newcomers.

Sabah were conscionable seconds from elimination against the Israeli champions, who won the archetypal limb 2-1 past week, erstwhile substitute Tellur Mutallimov scored successful the past infinitesimal of stoppage clip to unit other time.

Sabah’s Gabon striker Orphe Mbina past scored with a header successful the 101st minute, and Joy-Lance Mickels added connected successful the 115th to marque it 5-2 successful the 2nd limb and 6-4 connected aggregate.

Hapoel Beer-Sheva finished with 9 players aft starring 4-2 connected aggregate successful the 61st minute, erstwhile right-back Guy Mizrahi scored with a changeable from extracurricular the punishment area.

Defender Djibril Diop and midfielder Eliel Peretz were some shown 2nd yellowish cards successful other time.

No Israeli squad has played successful the main Champions League since November 2022, erstwhile Maccabi Haifa finished past successful a radical with Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

Israeli teams enactment successful European competitions arsenic the nationalist shot federation is simply a subordinate of UEFA. It joined the European confederation successful 1994 aft its expulsion from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) successful 1973, pursuing the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.