BERNE: Liverpool diced with elimination before scoring two late goals to win 2-1 at Trabzonspor and squeeze into the Europa League on Thursday while Swiss second division side Lausanne came through with a shock win over Lokomotiv Moscow.
Rapid Vienna, who knocked out English Premier League Aston Villa at the play-off stage last year, repeated the trick, coming from behind with two late goals to win 3-2 away and qualify 4-3 on aggregate in a rare boost for Austrian football.
Alessandro del Piero`s 53rd minute goal was enough for Juventus, who beat Austria`s Sturm Graz 1-0 for a 3-1 aggregate win, while ambitious Manchester City beat Timisoara 2-0 to complete a 3-0 aggregate success.
Celtic, dumped out of the Champions League qualifiers by Braga earlier this month, squandered a two-goal first leg lead at Utrecht, losing 4-0 on another night of European misery.
Liverpool looked like suffering a similar fate as the five-times European champions, taking a 1-0 lead to Turkey`s Black Sea Coast, saw it wiped out after only four minutes by Colombian forward Teofilo Guiterrez, who sidefooted Gustavo Colman`s shot into the net from 12 metres.
The hosts led until the 83rd minute when defender Giray Kacar turned Glen Johnson`s pass into his own goal under pressure from David Ngog.
Five minutes later, Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt, whose mistake led to the first goal, turned in a rebound after Onur Kivrak spilt a Dani Pacheco shot to complete a 3-1 win for Roy Hodgson`s team.
Lausanne were beaten 6-0 in last season`s Swiss Cup final by FC Basel but went into the Europa League hat after their conquerors qualified for the Champions League preliminaries.
Held 1-1 in last week`s first leg, Lausanne went in front with a header by Brazilian Silvio in the 17th minute and held their lead until Alexander Aliev levelled with five minutes left with a deflected free kick to level the aggregate score at 2-2.
The underdogs, whose reported annual budget of around 4 million Swiss francs (US$3.9 million) is a mere fraction of that of their Russian opponents, won 4-3 on penalties after Lokomotiv missed their last two attempts in the shootout.
RAPID REVENGE
Aston Villa were set for revenge against Rapid Vienna when Gabriel Agbonlahor put them ahead in the 22nd minute following last week`s 1-1 draw.
Although Atdhe Nuhiu levelled seven minutes after the break for the Austrians, Emile Heskey put Villa back in front in the 77th minute. But a Mario Sonnleitner goal one minute later stunned Villa Park and Rene Gartler completed Villa`s nightmare three minutes later.
Celtic`s defeat came as Ricky van Wolfswinkel notched a hat-trick for Utrecht, converting penalties in the 12th and 18th minutes, and scoring again after the break before Barry Maguire added the fourth just after the hour.
Sibir Novosibirsk, the most easterly club to have taken part in European competition, saw their hopes disintegrate as they lost 5-0 at PSV Eindhoven.
Leading 1-0 from last week`s first leg played more than 3,000 kilometres east of Moscow, the Russian team fell behind to a Marcus Berg goal in the 38th minute and fell apart after halftime when the Dutch added four more.
AZ Alkmaar also survived, going through 3-2 on aggregate despite losing 2-1 at Kazakhstan`s Aktobe Lento.
Paraguay striker Lucas Barrios scored an injury-time winner for Borussia Dortmund as they won 1-0 at Azerbaijan`s Garabagh Agdam to complete a 5-0 aggregate win while Villarreal came from behind to win 2-1 at Dnepr Monilev and go through 7-1 overall.
BDST: 1511HRS, August 27, 2010
