Champions League 2nd Qualifying Round Roundup

Celtic went some way to erasing the embarrassment of last week as they beat Lincoln Red Imps 3-0 last night to record Brendan Rodgers first competitive victory since taking over as manager.
It was always going to be a big ask for the Gibraltarian side even with a 1-0 advantage to take into last night’s 2nd leg, unfortunately lightning couldn’t strike twice.

The key for the Imps was to try and hold Celtic at bay for as long as possible, unfortunately for them their resolve was broken by Mikael Lustig after just 23 minutes that leveled the tie but it was also the start of a quickfire capitulation by the Imps as they conceded another two goals in the space of 6 minutes. 3-0 before the half hour and the game was all but over.

Celtic were now in cruise control and had plenty of chances to add to their first half efforts, Leigh Griffiths thought he had a second of the night only to see his effort ruled out for offside. After their win last night they will now face Astana of Kazakhstan in the third qualifying round.

In terms of other home nations it was not good reading as The New Saints of Wales lost 3-0 in Cyprus to APOEL Nicosia. After a spirited goalless draw in the first leg they had hoped to pull of an upset on Tuesday but unfortunately for them it wasn’t to be. While Northern Irish champions Crusaders had an even worse time of it, getting thumped 6-0 by Copenhagen and losing 9-0 on aggregate.

Republic Of Ireland champions Dundalk progressed through to the next round on away goals thanks a 2-2 draw. David McMillan was the hero of the night as his brace of goals now sees them take on BATE Borisov in the next round, while in the battle of Scandinavia Rosenborg may have lost to Norkopping 3-2 last night but still came away as winners of the tie after winning 5-4 on aggregate.

Here is a full round down of the results:

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Qarabağ	3–1	F91 Dudelange	2–0	1–1
Hapoel Be’er Sheva	3–2	Sheriff Tiraspol	3–2	0–0
Olimpija Ljubljana	6–6 (a)	Trenčín	3–4	3–2
Red Bull Salzburg	3–0	Liepāja	1–0	2–0
Vardar	3–5	Dinamo Zagreb	1–2	2–3
The New Saints	0–3	APOEL	0–0	0–3
Zrinjski Mostar	1–3	Legia Warsaw	1–1	0–2
Ludogorets Razgrad	5–0	Mladost Podgorica	2–0	3–0
Dinamo Tbilisi	3–1	Alashkert	2–0	1–1
Žalgiris Vilnius	1–2	Astana	0–0	1–2
Partizani Tirana	2–2 (3–1 p)	Ferencváros	1–1	1–1 (a.e.t.)
BATE Borisov	4–2	SJK	2–0	2–2
Valletta	2–4	Red Star Belgrade	1–2	1–2
Rosenborg	5–4	IFK Norrköping	3–1	2–3
Dundalk	3–3 (a)	FH	1–1	2–2
Lincoln Red Imps	1–3	Celtic	1–0	0–3
Crusaders	0–9	Copenhagen	0–3	0–6