Wisła see off ten-man Skonto

Wisła Kraków sealed their place in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round with a 2-0 victory against Skonto FC.

One up from the first leg in Latvia, the Polish champions controlled the match from start to finish and secured victory with second-half strikes from Patryk Małecki and Ivica Iliev. Skonto's day went from bad to worse when Ruslan Mingazov picked up a second yellow card in the final minute.

Wisła were on top from the off and were unfortunate not to take the lead in an eventful opening period. Michael Lamey's low cross from the right was met beautifully on the volley by Tsvetan Genkov, but his effort narrowly missed the target. Genkov came close again midway through the first half but this time his header was well saved by Germans Māliņš in the visitors' goal.

Skonto were unable to handle the intensity of Wisła's attacking play and shortly after the break Robert Maaskant's side broke the deadlock, Małecki cutting in from the left and unleashing an unstoppable drive past Māliņš. Despite being temporarily down to ten men while Genkov was off the pitch receiving treatment, Iliev doubled Wisła's advantage in a similar fashion to Małecki's opener.

Mingazov's dismissal completed a night to forget for Skonto, while Wisła can now look forward to facing Bulgarian champions PFC Litex Lovech in the third qualifying round. The first leg takes place in Lovech on 26/27 July, before the Krakow return on 2/3 August.