Leverkusen power past Lazio; CSKA Moscow eliminate Sporting
Goals from Hakan Calhanglou, Admir Mehmedi and Karim Bellarabi powered Bayer 04 Leverkusen into the UEFA Champions League group stage on Wednesday night against a Lazio side that ultimately disappointed.
Crucial mistakes that set up both goals and allowed Leverkusen to gain control after a frustrating first 40 minutes sent Lazio out the competition at the playoff stage. The loss meant that the Rome side's absence from the Champions League group stage now stretches to nine years and the automatic UEFA Europa League spot they gain may not seem like much of a reward.
Having won the first leg in Rome with a tight, defensively-smart performance, Lazio came to Northwest Germany with the same approach and appeared to be quite comfortable for much of the opening half. When Calhanoglu put Bayer on top the match changed, Lazio stuttered and were quickly punished at the start of the second half, then failed to raise their game to the necessary level.
The opening goal came just five minutes before the break and rewarded Leverkusen for its perseverance. As in the first leg in Rome, the Germans had plenty of the ball and created chances but they found the Lazio defense unbreakable until an error at the back contributed to the breakthrough by Calhanoglu.
First, Lazio surrendered possession too easily in their own half, then Stefan DeVrij failed to deal with Stefan Kiessling down low in the box. Kiessling turned the Dutch defender and laid the ball back in an attempt to set up something, only for Lazio's Stefan Radu to have the misfortune of seeing his clearance attempt bound off a body straight to the scorer. Calhangolu had the left side of the goal to aim for and made no mistake with his shot.
Earlier, the Turkish international had brought a fine reaction save from Etrit Berisha and Kiessling had a header crack off the top right corner of the crossbar as Leverkusen threatened but could not get the finish right in the opening 30 minutes and were beginning to look bereft of ideas until Calhangolu got them headed in the right direction.
The Italians then lost their concentration three minutes into the second half and paid full price when Mehmedi scored Leverkusen's second.
There appeared to be no worry for Lazio when Jonathan Tah had to beat Keita to a long ball, knocking it back to keeper Bernd Leno to clear any potential danger. Leno hammered a long clearance that Kiessling was able to head on for Bellarabi, who suddenly had space down the inside right channel and Mehmedi ahead of him.
Bellarabi slid a delicious pass through, Mehmedi got on the wrong side of defender Mauricio and gave Berisha no chance with a hard drive from the right that picked the opposite corner.
Lazio had a front-runner threat in Keita Balde Diao but the Italians were not able to create much in the way of sustained pressure. They were playing without four regulars, Lucas Biglia, Filip Dordevic, Miroslav Klose and goalkeeper Federico Marchetti all sidelined by injuries, and wound up with a tight, packed midfield trying to control the tempo and frustrate the home side. The fact that Felipe Anderson contributed little on the night didn't help, either.
When they fell behind they lacked the pace an invention to open things up although manager Stefano Pioli was animated on the sideline attempting to get his men to move forward more quickly in search of the away goal they needed to stay alive.
But when Mauricio bundled over Kiessling, who was attempting to run through central midfield, it was a second yellow for the Lazio man and the resulting red card signaled the end of any real hopes of advancement.
Kiessling, who did a mountain of work, was a major problem for Lazio. Leverkusen seemed able to find their big striker whenever necessary down the stretch and then watched him get possession and win one-vs.-one battles against defenders, That was a major reason why Lazio could not find the counter-attacking rhythm that was needed to change their fortunes.
When Bellarabi had an open net to shoot at after a Julian Brandt pass across the face of the net in the 88th minute the scoreboard reflected Leverkusen's second half dominance.
CSKA Moscow 3 (4), Sporting Lisbon 1 (3)
Ahmed Musa fired CSKA Moscow into the Champions League group stage with a late winner as the Russian team mounted a second-half comeback to beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1 on Wednesday and 4-3 on aggregate.
Teofilo Gutierrez had given Sporting a 1-0 lead on the night and 3-1 advantage on aggregate before CSKA's fightback began, with two goals from Seydou Doumbia, the second appearing to be scored with his elbow.
At 3-3 on aggregate, the game was headed for extra time before Musa scored his 85th-minute winning goal with a powerful shot off a pass from Alan Dzagoev. In stoppage time, Sporting's Joao Mario received a straight red card for a foul on Musa, who was stretchered off.
CSKA is in the group stage for the fourth time in five years.
Partizan Belgrade 2 (2), BATE Borisov 1 (2)
BATE Borisov lost 2-1 to Partizan Belgrade in Serbia but, with the tie finishing 2-2, progressed on away goals, Igor Stasevich providing the crucial strike for the Belarusians before Maksim Zhavnerchik's own-goal and substitute Ivan Saponjic's stoppage-time effort.
APOEL Nicosia 1 (1), Astana 1 (2)
Astana became the first Kazakhstani club to qualify for the group stage as their 1-1 draw with APOEL Nicosia in Cyprus saw them win 2-1 overall. Semir Stilic levelled the tie before Nemanja Maksimovic replied for Astana late on.
Information from The Associated Press and FOXSoccer.com's newswire services contributed to this report.
