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Sligo, İnter Bakı take charge on night of shocks

İnter Bakı PİK, Sligo Rovers FC and FC Astana earned shock UEFA Europa League second qualifying round first leg victories, ahead of Friday's third qualifying round draw.

UEFA Europa League second qualifying round first legs ©Sportsfile

Sligo Rovers FC and İnter Bakı PİK both recorded unexpected wins in Scandinavia on a night of shocks in the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round first legs.

Sligo and İnter Bakı lead upsets
Fancied H. Tel-Aviv and Lech suffer defeats
19-year-old Simon inspires Trencín with treble
Molde, Krasnodar and Göteborg earn healthy first-leg leads
 Third qualifying round draw streamed live from 13.00CET on Friday

Group stage contenders last season, IF Elfsborg, were expected to come out on top against İnter Bakı on Swedish soil but the Azerbaijani visitors had other ideas as Slavčo Georgievski's first-half goal secured a 1-0 win to take into next Thursday's return. Sligo also produced a surprise result as they chase a first ever group stage place, winning 2-1 in Norway to leave former UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists Rosenborg BK up against it at the tie's halfway stage.

Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC, group stage contenders in UEFA competition for four of the last five seasons, are also facing an uphill struggle after suffering a 3-0 loss in Kazakhstan at the hands of FC Astana. Another fancied side in the shape of KKS Lech Poznań have work to do next week after a 1-0 defeat at Estonia's JK Nõmme Kalju.

Trenčín's Moses Simon
Trenčín's Moses Simon©AS Trenčín

Simon scores three
The star performer of the evening proved to be Moses Simon, whose hat-trick inspired FK AS Trenčín to a 4-0 home success against FK Vojvodina, while Swedish debutants IF Brommapojkarna saw off Northern Ireland's Crusaders FC by the same scoreline. FC Dinamo Minsk will be confident of progressing following a 3-0 home success against Myllykosken Pallo-47 of Finland, while Molde FK eased to a 4-1 success against ND Gorica.

Two-time UEFA Cup winners IFK Göteborg were 3-0 victors in Hungary at ETO FC Győr while Russian first-timers FC Krasnodar will be equally confident of progressing after seeing off JK Sillamäe Kalev 4-0. Elsewhere, SV Zulte Waregem, in the group stage last season, earned a 2-1 home win against Zawisza Bydgoszcz and HNK Hajduk Split earned a 2-0 result at Dundalk FC. FC Slovan Liberec prevailed 1-0 at MFK Košice as they look to replicate last term's run to the round of 32 and Ruch Chorzów, quarter-finalists in 1973/74, defeated FC Vaduz 3-2.

Meanwhile, Diósgyőri VTK, AC Omonia and FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk all achieved wins on foreign soil which they hope will prove decisive in earning a place in the third qualifying round, the draw for which will be streamed live on UEFA.com from 13.00CET on Friday.