Football
ESPN staff 9y

Ludogorets out in second qualifying round as APOEL, Malmo advance

Ludogorets Razgrad's Champions League dreams came to an early end on Tuesday as they bounced out of the competition in the second qualifying round, one year after they put a scare into Liverpool in the group stage.

The Bulgarian champions lost 2-1 to Milsami of Moldova, falling 3-1 on aggregate.

Wanderson opened the scoring to level the tie in the 27th minute, buut Milsami responded a minute later, and despite a second-half red card to Andrei Cojocari, the hosts found a winner late on through Petru Racu.

In the next round of qualiyfing, Milsami will face Skenderbeu Korce, who advanced 6-4 on aggregate despite a late 3-2 loss at Crusaders.

An early red card to Renato Arapi gave the Northern Irish side hope, but Crusaders could not break through until Stephen O'Flynn's second-half goal, and later goals from Bernard Berisha and Liridon Latifi put the tie out of reach.

Stoppage-time goals from Matthew Snoddy and Andrew Mitchell reversed the outcome of the second leg, but not the tie as the Albanian side went through.

Cypriot champions APOEL, quarterfinalists in 2012, managed a 1-1 draw at Macedonia's Vardar to advance on away goals after a goalless first leg.

Tomas De Vincenti opened the scoring on the hour mark, and Blagoja Ljamcevski's stoppage-time equaliser was not enough to send the hosts through.

APOEL will next face Midtjylland, who saw off Gibraltar's Lincoln Red Imps 2-0 to complete a 3-0 aggregate win.

Martin Pusic and Mikkel Duelund were on the scoresheet for the Danish champions.

Malmo, who defeated Olympiakos in the group stage a year ago, could only manage one goal over two legs against Zalgiris Vilnius, but it was enough to advance 1-0. Anton Tinnerholm scored in the 55th minute to defeat the Lithuanian side.

Next up for the Swedish champions will be Austria's Red Bull Salzburg.

Maccabi Tel Aviv turned around a first-leg defeat to Malta's Hibernians, winning 5-1 to advance 6-3 on aggregate.

A Jorge Pereira own goal put the Israeli side on their way, and though Rodolfo Soares scored early in the second half for the visitors, Maccabi responded with goals from Eran Zahavi, Tal Ben Haim, Nosa Emanuel Igiebor and Eran Zahavi.

Czech champions Viktoria Plzen await Maccabi in the third qualifying round.

Armenian minnows Pyunik managed a 1-0 win against Molde on Zaven Badoyan's goal, but the contest was largely academic after the Norwegian side's 5-0 victory in the first leg.

Molde await the winners of Wednesday's second leg between Dinamo Zagreb and Fola Esch.

Goals from Darko Brasanac and Aboubakar Oumarou helped Partizan advance with a 2-0 win, 3-0 on aggregate, over Georgia's Dila Gori.

Partizan, of Serbia, will play the winners fo TrencĂ­n Slovakia and Steaua Bucuresti.

HJK got a late goal from Mike Havenaar to win 1-0 and see off Latvia's Ventspils 4-1 on aggregate.

Finland's champions will face Maribor or Astana in the next round.

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