United mauled 5-0 in Moscow
DUNDEE United may have been unlucky not to pull off a famous triumph over Dynamo Moscow at Tannadice last week when the visitors forced a late equaliser, but on their home patch the Russians ruthlessly brushed the Scots aside last night, inflicting a crushing 5-0 defeat on Peter Houston’s side and ending their interest in the Europa League at the qualifying stage.
United, who had impressed at the weekend then they opened their SPL campaign with a slick 3-0 win over Hibernian, saw a good chunk of their good work from the first-leg’s 2-2 draw undone, when Igor Semshov fired Dynamo into the lead within three minutes. By half-time, it was 3-0 – with goals from Aleksandr Kokorin and Artur Yusupov sending the home fans in the Arena Khimki wild.
A double from Aleksandr Sapeta completed the rout and sent United out of the Europa League as Dynamo progress to today’s draw for the play-off round, which also includes Hearts and Motherwell – the Fir Park side having dropped down to the second-tier European competition after their 5-0 aggregate defeat to Greek club Panathinaikos in the Champions League qualifying tie on Wednesday.
Celtic defender Thomas Rogne has no preferences ahead of today’s Champions League play-off draw in Nyon.
Neil Lennon’s men took one step closer to the lucrative group stages of European football’s elite club competition with a 2-0 win over HJK Helsinki in Finland to go through 4-1 on aggregate. As Clydesdale Bank Premier League winners, Celtic are in the Champions Path in the qualifiers and their five potential opponents are Helsingborgs (Sweden), NK Maribor (Slovenia), CFR 1907 Cluj (Romania), AEL Limassol (Cyprus) and Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona (Israel).
Rogne believes preparation will again be key, no matter who they come up against. “I don’t know all of them but I do know the Swedish team,” he told the club’s website “Of course, it will be exciting to see who we get but it will be a tough game and we just have to prepare as we did for this one and hopefully we can get through it.”
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Weather for Edinburgh
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 7 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
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