BERNE, (Reuters) – Liverpool diced with elimination before scoring two late goals to win 2-1 at Trabzonspor and squeeze into the Europa League yesterday 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 spilled 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.
