Forster Ooot Of Europe - England 7 Chilly Jockos 0

Last updated : 26 August 2011 By Footy Mad - Editor

EUROPA LEAGUE

Dnipro 1 Fulham 0 (1-3)
Spurs 0 Hearts 0 (5-0)
Birm'ham 3 Nacional 0 (3-0)
Stoke 4 FC Thun 1 (5-1)
Rangers 1 Maribor 1 (2-3)
Sion 3 Celtic 1 (3-1)

All three Scottish sides crashed out of the Europa League at the play-off stage on Thursday night while all the English sides involves secured a group-stage spot.

While Shamrock Rovers make history as the first Irish side to reach the group stages of a European competition with a famous win over Partizan ... Rangers, Celtic and Hearts all crashed out, meaning there will be no Scottish involvement in the group stages of either the Champions League or Europa League.

Rangers, trailing Slovenian champions Maribor 2-1 from the first leg, spurned a host of chances at Ibrox before Dalibor Valas extended the visitors' aggregate lead.

Carlos Bocanegra restored Rangers' hopes with an equaliser on 75 minutes, but the hosts couldn't find the goal to force extra-time with David Healy missing the best chance in the closing stages.

Celtic never recovered from falling a man and goal down within three minutes at FC Sion, eventually falling to a 3-1 defeat both on the night and on aggregate.

However, Celtic are looking for a red tape reprieve as Sion had five players in their squad - Feindouno, Mario Mutsch and Gabri, Jose Goncalves and Billy Ketkeophomphone - who are, in the eyes of FIFA, ineligible to play in the competition.

Sion's European squad, though, was approved by the Swiss FA who, along with the club, have reportedly been warned by UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino about possible sanctions although the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who will rule on the issue, will not pass their verdict next week.

The Celtic boss, however, expects a positive outcome.

"We have sent in letters last week and handed one to the delegate," Neil Lennon said. "There is hearing on Tuesday and we will know the outcome after that."

A second-string Tottenham side played out a tame goalless draw with Hearts at White Hart Lane to ease through to the group stage after last week's 5-0 victory at Tynecastle.

Striker Harry Kane missed a penalty for the home side, who announced the loan signings of Emmanuel Adebayor and Yago Falque during the game.

Championship side Birmingham defeated Nacional 3-0 at St Andrews to seal an aggregate victory by the same scoreline

Fulham are safely through despite losing 1-0 at Dnipro, the Cottagers' 3-0 win in last week's home leg securing their passage 3-1 on aggregate.

Stoke cruised into the group stages as Kenwyne Jones helped them wrap up a comfortable 5-1 aggregate victory over FC Thun with a brace in the play-off second leg at the Britannia Stadium.

Going into the game 1-0 up from last Thursday's initial meeting in Switzerland, the Potters soon extended their lead, scoring three times in the first half through headers from Matthew Upson and Jones and a drilled effort by Glenn Whelan.

Jones crashed home his second with just under 20 minutes to go before substitute Andreas Wittwer netted a consolation for Thun.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Group A

Bayern Munich
Villarreal
Manchester City
Napoli


Group B

Inter Milan
CSKA Moscow
Lille
Trabzonspor


Group C

Manchester United
Benfica
Basel
Otelul Galati


Group D

Real Madrid
Lyon
Ajax
Dinamo Zagreb


Group E

Chelsea
Valencia
Bayer Leverkusen
Genk


Group F

Arsenal
Marseille
Olympiakos
Borussia Dortmund


Group G

Porto
Shakhtar Donetsk
Zenit St Petersburg
APOEL


Group H

Barcelona
AC Milan
BATE Borisov
FC Viktoria Plzen

Andre Villas-Boas has insisted he would quit football if he did not believe Chelsea could beat Barcelona to this season's Champions League crown.

"Barcelona are the reference," he said.

"They can beat any team in the world, but so could Chelsea and so could Real (Madrid).

"If I didn't believe that, I'd quit the game.

"I'm not going into the game with a losing mentality."

Europa League

Group A: TOTTENHAM, Rubin Kazan, PAOK, SHAMROCK

Group B: FC Copenhagen, Standard Liege, Hannover, Vorskla Poltava

Group C: PSV Eindhoven, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Rapid Bucharest, Legia Warsaw

Group D: Sporting Lisbon, Lazio, FC Zurich, Vaslui

Group E: Dynamo Kiev, Besiktas, STOKE, Maccabi Tel Aviv

Group F: Paris St Germain, Athletic Bilbao, Red Bull Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava

Group G: AZ Alkmaar, Metalist Kharkiv, FK Austria Wien, Malmo

Group H: Braga, Club Brugge, BIRMINGHAM, Maribor

Group I: Atletico Madrid, Udinese, Rennes, Sion

Group J: Schalke, Steaua Bucharest, Maccabi Haifa, AEK Larnaca

Group K: FC Twente, FULHAM, Odense, Wisla Krakow

Group L: Anderlecht, AEK Athens, Lokomotiv Moscow, Sturm Graz