Young Boys clinch spot in new-look, 36-team UCL
Switzerland‘s Young Boys beat Galatasaray 1-0 in the second leg of their Champions League playoff on Tuesday to qualify for the league phase of the refreshed competition following a 4-2 aggregate win.
Czech champions Sparta Prague beat Sweden’s Malmo 2-0 for a 4-0 aggregate win as they also reached the Champions League’s new league phase while RB Salzburg drew 1-1 at home with Dynamo Kyiv to advance after their 2-0 first-leg win.
Young Boys forward Alan Virginius scored in the 87th minute after the Swiss champions defeated Galatasaray 3-2 in their home leg last week thanks to Joel Monteiro‘s first-half brace and a late penalty converted by Filip Ugrinic.
Young Boys went close to increasing their advantage in the first half of the second leg when Silvére Ganvoula hit the post and forward Ebrima Colley was flagged for offside when he headed home in the 31st minute.
Galatasaray, UEFA Cup winners in 2000, missed out on the Champions League for the second time in three years.
Regulars in the Champions League group stage, they have not reached the knockout rounds since 2013-14, when they made it to the last 16.
Sparta Prague doubled their 2-0 first-leg advantage over Malmo to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition for the first time since 2005.
Lukás Haraslín opened the scoring for the Czech league leaders in the 80th minute from the spot before setting up Albion Rrahmani for the second, three minutes later.
The Slovakia midfielder thought he had made it 1-0 in the 68th minute, but his goal was disallowed for offside.
Both Sparta and Malmo missed penalties in the first half through midfielders Veljko Birmancevic and Anders Christiansen, respectively.
Salzburg made a rapid start to their return clash against Dynamo as winger Adam Daghim put the hosts in front in the 12th minute.
The Ukrainians equalised just before the half-hour mark through Vladyslav Vanat‘s low shot inside the far post.
The Austrian Bundesliga runners-up have made the Champions League’s group stage every year since the 2019-20 season.
France‘s Lille are among the sides in action on Wednesday and hold a 2-0 first-leg advantage over Slavia Prague.
The Champions League is expanding from 32 to 36 teams this season and is doing away with the traditional group phase employed for the last 21 years in favor of clubs competing in one giant 36 team table.
Each team will play eight games in the league phase, up from six in the group stage, with the draw scheduled to take place on Thursday and fixtures for all 36 teams to be made public on Saturday.
After facing eight different teams, half at home and half away, the top eight sides will qualify automatically for the last 16, with the sides ranked ninth to 24th going into a playoff.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
