Sport - Football

Kuyt saves Liverpool’s blushes

LIVERPOOL: Five-time European champion Liverpool struggled to advance past Standard Liege 1-0 with a goal late into extra time to reach the Champions League group stage on Wednesday.

Dirk Kuyt scored the only goal of the two legs in the 28th minute of added time, just two minutes before the game would have headed to penalties.

Meanwhile, Greek champion Olympiakos suffered a shock exit from the third qualifying round, beating Anorthosis Famugusta 1-0 but losing 3-1 on aggregate.

Among the other teams advancing to the group stage were Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Fiorentina and Marseille.

Arsenal, already leading 2-0, dispatched FC Twente 4-0, while Marseille beat Brann 2-1 to round off a 3-1 aggregate victory over the Norwegian club. Atletico overcame a 1-0 first-leg deficit to rout Schalke 4-0, and Fiorentina relied on its 2-0 first-leg victory to advance as it was held 0-0 at Slavia Prague.

Liverpool was again saved by goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who turned back a penalty in the goalless first leg at Liege.

Marouane Fellaini’s wayward shooting and Reina’s firm hands denied the Belgium midfielder a valuable away goal.

Xabi Alonso was unlucky not to put the 2005 champion ahead in the 40th with a 25-metre effort shaving the post, while United States defender Oguchi Onyewu blocked Robbie Keane’s advance on the stroke of halftime.

Nabil El Zhar had a penalty claim dismissed when he was fouled by Onyewu with seven minutes remaining, but Ryan Babel was able to produce a spectacular cross that found Kuyt at the far post.

Olympiakos will have to settle for the UEFA Cup after Fernando Belluschi scored just once as the Greeks failed to overcome a 3-0 defeat to Anorthosis two weeks ago.

Arsenal denied former England manager Steve McClaren a successful return to home soil with Dutch side Twente.

Samir Nasri put the Gunners ahead in the 27th, while William Gallas, Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner scored in the second half to seal a 6-0 aggregate victory.

FC Barcelona, Juventus and Panathinaikos advanced on Tuesday, joining teams that automatically earned group stage berths, including champion Manchester United, Chelsea, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Lyon.

The results: BATE Borisov 1 (Sosnovski 14) drew with Levski Sofia 1 (Gadjev 38). BATE Borisov wins 2-1 on aggregate; Dynamo Kiev 4 (Aliyev 4, Bangoura 24, Milevskiy 49, 78) bt Spartak Moscow 1 (Dzyuba 47). Dynamo Kiev wins 8-2 on aggregate; Steaua Bucharest 1 (Nicolita 58) bt Galatasaray (TUR) 0. Steaua wins 3-2 on aggregate; Fenerbahce 2 (Senturk 28, Alex 58) bt Partizan Belgrade 1 (Tosic 76). Fenerbahce wins 4-3 on aggregate; FC Basel 2 (Stocker 11, Derdiyok 54) bt Vitoria Guimaraes 1 (Fajardo 14-pen). Basel wins 2-1 on aggregate; Olympiakos 1 (Belluschi 53) bt Anorthosis Famugusta 0. Famagousta wins 3-1 on aggregate; Slavia Prague 0 drew with Fiorentina 0. Fiorentina wins 2-0 on aggregate; Atletico Madrid 4 (Aguero 19, Forlan 51, Luis Garcia 82, Maxi Rodriguez 87-pen) bt Schalke 04 0. Atletico wins 4-1 on aggregate; FBK Kaunas 0 lost to Aalborg 2 (Risgaard 75, 90). Aalborg wins 4-0 on aggregate.

Dinamo Zagreb 1 (Balaban 57) lost to Shakhtar Donetsk 3 (Silva Luiz Adriano 42, Brandao 59, Silva Willian 70). Donetsk wins 5-1 on aggregate; Marseille 2 (Niang 66, 90+1) bt SK Brann 1 (Sidgursson 74). Marseille wins 3-1 on aggregate; Arsenal 4 (Nasri 27, Gallas 52, Walcott 66, Bendtner 89) bt FC Twente 0. Arsenal wins 6-0 on aggregate; Liverpool 1 (Kuyt 118) bt Standard Liege 0. Liverpool wins 1-0 on aggregate. — Agencies

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