Ajax Ward Star and Celtic and Porto out of the Champions League

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Former European champions have had mixed chances in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, while Ajax Amsterdam and Red Star Belgrade have tightly qualified for the final qualifying round, while Celtic and Porto were eliminated after an exciting night on Tuesday.

Ajax, who reached the semi-finals last season, beat the PAOK 3-2 and a 5-4 overall performance against Greece, while Red Star defeated Danish rival Copenhagen on penalties after 22 shots on goal.

Krasnodar was a surprise with a 3-2 away win over Porto to qualify for the away goal after losing 1-0 at home and Cluj was imposed 4- 3 at Celtic to bring down Scotland's champions 5-4 in total.

A graduate of Ajax, Diego Besisoar gave Johan Cruyff the advantage before Dusan Tadic scored a goal at the end of the first half, having lost a penalty.

PAOK goalkeeper Alexandros Baklakis managed a series of good chances, but his goal was finally shaken by a header from Nicolas Taliavico and another penalty from Tadic before Besiswar reduced the shot in stoppage time.

Ghanaian striker Richmond Bouake gave Red Star the lead in Copenhagen and Dami Nadui equalized and both shots went into a penalty shoot-out. The Danish champions missed two chances to qualify before Serbian goalkeeper Milan Burian frustrated him.

Burian kept Red Star in the tournament by sparing two attempts and scoring a penalty kick before rekindling the spectators when he saved Jonas Wind's weak shot to send the Serbian team to the final.

After a 1-1 draw in Romania, Celtic made up for their lead of 3-2 before collapsing towards the end to give Cluj two goals and the Romanian team won 5-4 overall against the Czech champions. Scotland, European Champion of 1967.

* the fatal blow

Bilal Amrani scored for Cluj after a 2-1, 3-2 backlog and George Tokudin found himself in stalemate in stoppage time while all Celtic players had moved on to play. ;offensive.

Porto won 3-0 in front of Krasnodar in his disastrous first match. Mohamed Suleimanov scored a goal twice after Toni Vilhena's equalizer.

The local team, twice winner of the European Cup, responded in the second half thanks to Ze Lewis and Luis Diaz, but the Russian team managed to retain the Dragao stadium.

Dynamo Kiev looked set to make up for their 1-0 defeat by Club Brugge after Vitaly Poyalsky's victory early in the day, but the Belgians reacted vigorously.

Substitute Luis Opinda, who was out of play, silenced supporters in Kiev about a minute after stepping out of the field. He scored in the 96th minute to allow Brugge to draw 3-3 and set a deadline for the preliminary final with Lask.

Lask repeated his 2-1 away win over Basel and beat Switzerland 3-1 at home, while Dinamo Zagreb crushed France 4-0 out of the country after a draw 1-1 at home against Hungary.

Rosenborg beat Maribor 3-1 to win 6-2 over the two games against Slovenia.

L & # 39; Olympiacos also beat Istanbul Basak Shahr 2-0, beating the Turkish team 3-0 overall.