København, Legia, Maribor among first-leg winners
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
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Legia Warszawa and København both scored three goals in away victories while fellow former group stage contenders Astana, APOEL and Maribor eked out second qualifying round first-leg wins of their own.
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Wednesday night's first legs (click for details)
APOEL 1-0 Dudelange
BATE 1-1 Alashkert
Dundalk 1-1 Rosenborg
FH 1-1 Vikingur
Hapoel Beer-Sheva 2-1 Honvéd
Malmö 1-1 Vardar
Mariehamn 0-3 Legia
Sheriff 1-0 Kukës
Spartaks Jūrmala 0-1 Astana
Žalgiris 2-1 Ludogorets
Žilina 1-3 København
Zrinjski 1-2 Maribor
There were contrasting results for the ten teams with group stage pedigree in action on Wednesday. While Astana, APOEL, Maribor, Legia Warszawa and København were victorious, BATE Borisov and Malmö drew 1-1 at home and Ludogorets Razgrad took the lead in Vilnius, only to lose 2-1 to Žalgiris.
Andrija Pavlović scored a second-half hat-trick in København's come-from-behind win at ten-man Žilina – group stage contenders themselves in 2010/11 – and Legia made light work of Mariehamn on what was the Finnish team's UEFA Champions League debut.
Rosenborg, once a regular presence in Europe's elite club competition, rallied from a goal down to draw at Dundalk. There were also four first legs played on Tuesday, with another – Linfield versus Celtic – taking place on Friday.
Second qualifying round second legs
These will follow next week, on Tuesday 18 or Wednesday 19 July. The aggregate victors – after extra time and penalties if required – will go straight into the third qualifying round.
Friday's third qualifying round draw
Before the second qualifying round is completed, however, the third qualifying round draw will be made at UEFA headquarters in Nyon from 12:00CET on Friday 14 July.
As the ties will only be at their halfway stage, all 34 second qualifying round teams will go into the champions route along with the title winners from the three highest-ranked associations that do not qualify for an automatic group place (Czech Republic, Greece and Romania) to form ten possible third qualifying round fixtures.
The third qualifying round also marks the beginning of the league route of qualification, which is made up of the third-placed team from the sixth-ranked member association (France) plus the league runners-up from the associations ranked 7th to 15th. The five sides with the highest coefficients are seeded. Any further restrictions will be announced ahead of the draw.