PARIS // English Premier League side Hull City recovered from the loss of an early away goal to beat Slovakian upstarts Trencin 2-1 and qualify for the Europa League play-offs on Thursday.
Hull, who qualified for European competition for the first time in their long history after losing to Arsenal in last season’s FA Cup final, only managed a 0-0 draw in last week’s first leg in western Slovakia and that left them vulnerable to the concession of an away goal in the return.
Read more: Hull City’s first year in top flight could be a hard act to follow, writes Richard Jolly
And Trencin, runners-up in the Slovakian top flight last season, stunned their hosts at the KC Stadium when giant forward Tomas Malec opened the scoring inside two minutes.
That left Steve Bruce’s side needing to score twice without reply to progress but Egyptian Ahmed Elmohamady equalised on the night just before the half-hour mark and substitute Sone Aluko netted the winner with 10 minutes remaining.
The Tigers will discover who awaits them in the play-off round when the draw is made on Friday, when fellow Premier League representatives Tottenham Hotspur enter the competition, with both teams hoping to join Everton in the group stage.
“You’re always worried when there’s 15 minutes to go and you’re thinking about all the hype and euphoria, but you’re about to fall at the first hurdle,” said Bruce.
“But we’ve stuck at it and, not for the first time, we’ve seen them do it. It’s been difficult but we’ve got through it and let’s enjoy the draw tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Celtic are now Scotland’s only surviving representative in European competition after Aberdeen and Scottish Cup holders St Johnstone were both knocked out on Thursday.
Aberdeen put up a brave fight against Real Sociedad at Pittodrie but went down 3-2 on the night to the Spanish side to lose 5-3 on aggregate.
Meanwhile, the prolific Stevie May scored as St Johnstone drew 1-1 away to Spartak Trnava in Slovakia, but a 2-1 defeat in last week’s first leg cost them dear.
Celtic parachute into the Europa League play-offs after comprehensively losing 6-1 on aggregate to the Polish champions Legia Warsaw in the Champions League third qualifying round.
Elsewhere, PSV Eindhoven, Torino and Lyon were among the teams to progress, although German Bundesliga outfit Mainz were surprisingly beaten by Greek club Asteras, losing 3-1 on the night to go out 3-2 on aggregate.
Europa League third qualifying round, second leg results from Thursday:
At Larnaca, Cyprus
Ermis Aradippou (CYP) 0 Young Boys (SUI) 2
Young Boys win 3-0 on aggregate
At Odessa, Ukraine
Chornomorets Odessa (UKR) 0 RNK Split (CRO) 0
RNK Split win 2-0 on aggregate
At Krasnodar, Russia
FC Krasnodar (RUS) 3 Diosgyor (HUN) 0
Krasnodar win 8-1 on aggregate
At Molde, Norway
Molde (NOR) 1 Zorya Luhansk (UKR) 2
Zorya win 3-2 on aggregate
At Liberec, Czech Republic
Slovan Liberec (CZE) 2 FC Astra (ROM) 3
Astra win 6-2 on aggregate
At Esbjerg, Denmark
Esbjerg (DEN) 2 Ruch Chorzow (POL) 2
Aggregate 2-2, Ruch win on away goals
At Nicosia
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona (ISR) 1 Dinamo Moscow (RUS) 2
Dinamo win 3-2 on aggregate
At Solna, Sweden
AIK (SWE) 0 Astana (KAZ) 3
Astana win 4-1 on aggregate
At Borisov, Belarus
Shakhtyor Soligorsk (BLR) 2-2 Zulte Waregem (BEL)
Shakhtyor win 7-4 on aggregate
At St Poelten, Austria
St Poelten (AUT) 2 PSV Eindhoven (NED) 3
PSV win 4-2 on aggregate
At Poznan, Poland
Lech Poznan (POL) 0 Stjarnan (ISL) 0
Stjarnan win 1-0 on aggregate
At Tbilisi
Chikhura Sachkere (GEO) 2 Neftci PFK (AZE) 3
Neftci win 3-2 on aggregate
At Trondheim, Norway
Rosenborg (NOR) 1 Karabukspor (TUR) 1
Aggregate 1-1, Karabukspor win on away goals
At Cluj-Napoca, Romania
CFR Cluj (ROM) 0 Dinamo Minsk (BLR) 2
Dinamo win 3-0 on aggregate
At Split, Croatia
Hajduk Split (CRO) 3 Shakhter Karagandy (KAZ) 0
Hajduk win 5-4 on aggregate
At Zlate Moravce, Slovakia
Spartak Trnava (SVK) 1 St Johnstone (SCO) 1
Spartak Trnava win 3-2 on aggregate
At Athens
Atromitos (GRE) 1 FK Sarajevo (BIH) 3 after extra time
Sarajevo win 4-3 on aggregate
At Brondby, Denmark
Brondby (DEN) 0 Club Brugge (BEL) 2
Club Brugge win 5-0 on aggregate
At Pilsen, Czech Republic
Viktoria Pilsen (CZE) 1 Petrolul Ploiesti (ROM) 4
Petrolul win 5-2 on aggregate
At Tripoli, Greece
Asteras (GRE) 3 Mainz (GER) 1
Asteras win 3-2 on aggregate
At Turin, Italy
Torino (ITA) 4 Brommapojkarma (SWE) 0
Torino win 7-0 on aggregate
At Lyon, France
Lyon (FRA) 2 Mlada Boleslav (CZE) 1
Lyon win 6-2 on aggregate
At Hull, England
Hull City (ENG) 2 Trencin (SVK) 1
Hull win 2-1 on aggregate
At Hafnarfjoerdur, Iceland
FH Hafnarfjoerdur (ISL) 2 Elfsborg (SWE) 1
Elfsborg win 5-3 on aggregate
At Skopje
Metalurg Skopje (MKD) 0 Omonia Nicosia (CYP) 1
Omonia win 4-0 on aggregate
At Aberdeen, Scotland
Aberdeen (SCO) 2 Real Sociedad (ESP) 3
Real Sociedad win 5-2 on aggregate
At Vila do Conde, Portugal
Rio Ave (POR) 0 IFK Gothenburg (SWE) 0
Rio Ave win 1-0 on aggregate
At Chisinau
Zimbru Chisinau (MDA) 0 Groedig (AUT) 1
Aggregate 2-2, Zimbru win on away goals
At Rijeka, Croatia
Rijeka (CRO) 4 Vikingur (FRO) 0
Rijeka win 9-1 on aggregate
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