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Welsh champions The New Saints bowed out of the Champions League as Cypriots APOEL turned in a powerful second-leg display to book their place in the third qualifying round with a 3-0 aggregate victory. The sides had drawn 0-0 at Park Hall last week and the Welshmen made it to the break in Nicosia without mishap. However, Nektarios Alexandrou opened the scoring nine minutes after the restart when his deflected shot eluded goalkeeper Paul Harrison, and the Saints were up against it when Pieros Sotiriou doubled the home side's advantage with 17 minutes remaining. Both the game and the tie were over deep into injury time when, after Brazilian Vander had been felled by substitute Steve Saunders inside the box, Tomas de Vincenti made it three from the spot to earn a clash with either Rosenborg of Norway or Sweden's Norrkoping in the next round. The going was even tougher for Northern Ireland's Crusaders as they went down 6-0 to FC Copenhagen in Denmark to lose 9-0 on aggregate. Striker Andreas Cornelius, who scored in his side's 3-0 victory at Seaview last week, helped himself to a double at Telia Parken with the Danes running riot. Fellow frontman Andrija Pavlovic opened the scoring after 15 minutes and Andrew Mitchell's injury-time own goal sent the home side in at the break cruising. Cornelius struck twice either side of efforts from Rasmus Falk and Jan Gregus to complete a rout which will see Copenhagen go head-to-head with Romanian outfit Astra Giurgiu. Valon Berisha and Bernardo scored as Salzburg won 2-0 over Liepaja in Latvia to complete a 3-0 aggregate victory, with the Austrians moving on to face the Partizani Tirana-Ferencvaros winners. Dinamo Tbilisi got a goal from Jambul Jighauri and managed a 1-1 draw at Alashkert in Armenia to go through 3-1 on aggregate and face Vardar or Dinamo Zagreb. Nemanja Nikolic scored twice to help Poland champions Legia Warsaw win their home leg over Herzegoniva's Zrinjski Mostar and complete a 3-1 aggregate victory. Legia will play the winners of Wednesday's tie between Slovenia's Olimpija Ljubljana and Slovakia's Trencin in the third round. BATE Borisov earned a 2-2 draw in Finland over SJK to advance 4-2 on aggregate. They'll next play the winners of Ireland's Dundalk and Iceland's FH. Aleksandr Karnitskiy and Aleksey Rios scored within the first half-hour to put BATE four goals ahead before Ariel Ngueukam and Roope Riski started a comeback for the hosts that fell short. Hapoel Be'er Sheva played to a a goalless draw at Sheriff Tiraspol in Moldova to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory. However, the Israeli champions will be without Ovidiu Hoban in their first leg against Olympiakos after the defender was sent off in stoppage time. Red Star Belgrade shook off a challenge from Maltese club Valletta to win 2-1 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate. Jonathan Caruana's 11th-minute goal drew the Malta champions to 2-2 for the tie before Mitchell Donald and Aleksandar Katai scored to see the hosts through. They will next face Ludogorets Razgrad after the Bulgarian side used a Jody Lukoki brace to win 3-0 in Montenegro to eliminate Mladost Pogorica 5-0 on aggregate. Information from Press Association was used in this report.
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