Scoring extravaganza in London

After Maccabi from Haifa unexpectedly knocked Rostov out of the Europa League, Russian fans waited with particular interest for the confrontation between the Israeli team and Tottenham in the playoff round of the tournament.

Additional intrigue was given to him by the ugly behavior of Maccabi midfielder Mohammad Abu Fani.

Celebrating the victory in the locker room of the stadium in Rostov-on-Don, he swore offensively against Harry Kane right on camera, and this video was leaked.

It is not known whether the striker of the London club knew about this video, but on Thursday he and his partners did not leave the opponent the slightest chance - 7: 2.

The England striker himself scored a hat-trick.

He now has five goals in three LE matches.

Twice scored Giovani Lo Celso, who has not scored since January.

As part of Maccabi, the realized penalty and an assist were recorded by Nikita Rukavitsa, a native of Nikolaev, who is flying the flag of Australia.

Tottenham not only scored seven goals in the European competition for the first time in 37 years, but also achieved a 7-2 victory exactly one year after being defeated by Bayern in the UEFA Champions League group stage (2-7).

With much more difficulty I made it to the group stage of the LE Milan.

The Rossoneri played away with Portugal's fifth team, Rio Ave, and were considered the clear favorite of the confrontation.

However, the first half of the meeting, which took place in conditions of heavy rain and squally winds, ended without goals scored, and the guests did not strike a single shot on target.

Nevertheless, right after the break, the Belgian defender of Milan Alexis Salemakers opened the scoring.

But the hosts not only managed to recoup, but also came out ahead at the very beginning of extra time.

Milan managed to escape defeat only in the 122nd minute, when Hakan Чalhanoglu converted a penalty awarded for an unjustified play by the hand of Rio Ave's defender in his own penalty area.

As a result, the fate of a ticket to the group stage was decided in a penalty shootout, which lasted almost half an hour.

The teams had to break through 12 hits each.

Even the goalkeepers - Gianluigi Donnarumma and Pavel Kishek - approached the "point", but both shot above the alignment, although the Pole could bring "Rio Ave" victory.

The hosts three times had a chance to finish the match in their favor, but each time the team players at the decisive moment failed to strike an accurate shot.

As a result, the fate of the confrontation was decided by Donnarumma's save after Aderlan Santos's shot.

So Milan made their way to the UEL group stage, extended their unbeaten streak in all tournaments to 18 matches and won a penalty shootout in European competition for the first time in 17 years.

Then the red-blacks in the penalty shootout were stronger than Juventus in the Champions League final.

A difficult match away with Swedish Malmö was played by Spanish Granada, who won with a score of 3: 1.

In the first half, the teams exchanged goals scored, and in the 58th minute, the guests took the lead.

Nevertheless, the hosts tried to recoup to the very end and surrendered only after conceding the third goal.

Carrera's team comeback

However, the leading European championships in the Europa League playoff round still suffered one loss.

The German "Wolfsburg" on the road was defeated by AEK Massimo Carrera - 1: 2.

The hosts earned a penalty at the beginning of the match, but Petros Mantalos was unable to beat Pavao Pervan.

And at the end of the first half, Admir Mehmedi brought the guests ahead.

The meeting seemed to be developing according to their scenario.

But after the break, AEK managed to recoup thanks to an incredible long-range shot by Andre Simoes.

The denouement came in the fourth added minute.

The substitute Iranian striker Karim Ansarifard fled to the other's goal and punched into the near corner.

Thus, Carrera, who led the team from Athens in December 2019, immediately brought him to the group stage of the European Cup.

After the Italian left, Spartak never made it there.

There were enough other unexpected results on Thursday.

For example, Copenhagen, which in August fought on equal terms with Manchester United in the Europa League quarterfinals, lost with a minimum score at home to Croatian Rijeka.

The fate of the meeting was decided by Peter Ankersen's curious own goal in the 20th minute.

It was co-authored by the guests' striker Sandro Kulenovich, who fled to someone else's penalty area from the center of the field, beating several opponents along the way, and beautifully threw the goalkeeper.

The ball hit the crossbar, bounced off it exactly at Ankersen and ended up in the net.

This Rijeka goal away to Copenhagen might be the funniest goal in years pic.twitter.com/pygJrytusR

- Dodge 😷 (@seidodge) October 1, 2020

The game day was unsuccessful for another quarter-finalist of the 2019/20 tournament - Basel, which also lost to CSKA Sofia at home (1: 3), having conceded twice in the end of the meeting.

For the first time in ten years, the Bulgarian army team made it to the UEL group stage.

Portuguese "Sporting" suffered a crushing defeat from the fourth team of Austria LASK (1: 4) and for the first time since 2013 did not make it to the group stage of European competitions.

Thus, Portugal will be represented there by only three teams: Porto (Champions League), Benfica and Braga (both - Europa League).

The failures of the teams from this country cannot but rejoice Russian fans, because it is with Portugal that the Russian Federation is fighting for the sixth place in the UEFA coefficient table, which allows three clubs to be declared in the Champions League.

Success of "Karabakh"

However, the honor of Russia in the group stage of the LE will be defended by CSKA alone.

And if we talk about all the teams from the post-Soviet space, then only three clubs made it to the group stage of the second most important European Cup.

In addition to the army team and the Ukrainian "Zorya", who got there directly, "Garabagh" won the ticket to the main tournament.

The away team from Aghdam unexpectedly easily defeated the Polish champion Legia - 3: 0, scoring all three goals after the break.

Thus, “Garabagh” managed to break into the group stage of European competitions for the seventh time in a row.

The rest of the teams, representing the countries of the former USSR, failed in the playoff round.

Brest Dynamo lost at home to Bulgarian Ludogorets - 0: 2.

In the end, the guests were scored by two substitutes, Elvis Manyu and Iginio Marin.

At the same time, the owners' defender Gabi Kiki, with an equal score, struck the post.

Due to the tense situation in the region, FC "Ararat-Armenia" was forced to play its home match against "Crvena Zvezda" not in Yerevan, but on neutral territory in Cyprus and also suffered a defeat - 1: 2.

Finally, the Estonian champion "Flora" on the road, as expected, lost to Zagreb "Dynamo" - 1: 3.