Europa League round-up: Hull City survive fright to record maiden European win

English Premier League side Hull City recovered from the loss of an early away goal to beat Slovakian upstarts Trencin 2-1 and qualify for the Europa League play-offs. All other Europa League results also included.

Hull's Sone Aluka, second right, scores an 80th-minute winner against Trencin at the KC Stadium. Jan Kruger/Getty Images

PARIS // English Premier League side Hull City recovered from the loss of an early away goal to beat Slovakian upstarts Trencin 2-1 and qualify for the Europa League play-offs on Thursday.

Hull, who qualified for European competition for the first time in their long history after losing to Arsenal in last season’s FA Cup final, only managed a 0-0 draw in last week’s first leg in western Slovakia and that left them vulnerable to the concession of an away goal in the return.

And Trencin, runners-up in the Slovakian top flight last season, stunned their hosts at the KC Stadium when giant forward Tomas Malec opened the scoring inside two minutes.

That left Steve Bruce’s side needing to score twice without reply to progress but Egyptian Ahmed Elmohamady equalised on the night just before the half-hour mark and substitute Sone Aluko netted the winner with 10 minutes remaining.

The Tigers will discover who awaits them in the play-off round when the draw is made on Friday, when fellow Premier League representatives Tottenham Hotspur enter the competition, with both teams hoping to join Everton in the group stage.

“You’re always worried when there’s 15 minutes to go and you’re thinking about all the hype and euphoria, but you’re about to fall at the first hurdle,” said Bruce.

“But we’ve stuck at it and, not for the first time, we’ve seen them do it. It’s been difficult but we’ve got through it and let’s enjoy the draw tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Celtic are now Scotland’s only surviving representative in European competition after Aberdeen and Scottish Cup holders St Johnstone were both knocked out on Thursday.

Aberdeen put up a brave fight against Real Sociedad at Pittodrie but went down 3-2 on the night to the Spanish side to lose 5-3 on aggregate.

Meanwhile, the prolific Stevie May scored as St Johnstone drew 1-1 away to Spartak Trnava in Slovakia, but a 2-1 defeat in last week’s first leg cost them dear.

Celtic parachute into the Europa League play-offs after comprehensively losing 6-1 on aggregate to the Polish champions Legia Warsaw in the Champions League third qualifying round.

Elsewhere, PSV Eindhoven, Torino and Lyon were among the teams to progress, although German Bundesliga outfit Mainz were surprisingly beaten by Greek club Asteras, losing 3-1 on the night to go out 3-2 on aggregate.

Europa League third qualifying round, second leg results from Thursday:

At Larnaca, Cyprus

Ermis Aradippou (CYP) 0 Young Boys (SUI) 2

Young Boys win 3-0 on aggregate

At Odessa, Ukraine

Chornomorets Odessa (UKR) 0 RNK Split (CRO) 0

RNK Split win 2-0 on aggregate

At Krasnodar, Russia

FC Krasnodar (RUS) 3 Diosgyor (HUN) 0

Krasnodar win 8-1 on aggregate

At Molde, Norway

Molde (NOR) 1 Zorya Luhansk (UKR) 2

Zorya win 3-2 on aggregate

At Liberec, Czech Republic

Slovan Liberec (CZE) 2 FC Astra (ROM) 3

Astra win 6-2 on aggregate

At Esbjerg, Denmark

Esbjerg (DEN) 2 Ruch Chorzow (POL) 2

Aggregate 2-2, Ruch win on away goals

At Nicosia

Hapoel Kiryat Shmona (ISR) 1 Dinamo Moscow (RUS) 2

Dinamo win 3-2 on aggregate

At Solna, Sweden

AIK (SWE) 0 Astana (KAZ) 3

Astana win 4-1 on aggregate

At Borisov, Belarus

Shakhtyor Soligorsk (BLR) 2-2 Zulte Waregem (BEL)

Shakhtyor win 7-4 on aggregate

At St Poelten, Austria

St Poelten (AUT) 2 PSV Eindhoven (NED) 3

PSV win 4-2 on aggregate

At Poznan, Poland

Lech Poznan (POL) 0 Stjarnan (ISL) 0

Stjarnan win 1-0 on aggregate

At Tbilisi

Chikhura Sachkere (GEO) 2 Neftci PFK (AZE) 3

Neftci win 3-2 on aggregate

At Trondheim, Norway

Rosenborg (NOR) 1 Karabukspor (TUR) 1

Aggregate 1-1, Karabukspor win on away goals

At Cluj-Napoca, Romania

CFR Cluj (ROM) 0 Dinamo Minsk (BLR) 2

Dinamo win 3-0 on aggregate

At Split, Croatia

Hajduk Split (CRO) 3 Shakhter Karagandy (KAZ) 0

Hajduk win 5-4 on aggregate

At Zlate Moravce, Slovakia

Spartak Trnava (SVK) 1 St Johnstone (SCO) 1

Spartak Trnava win 3-2 on aggregate

At Athens

Atromitos (GRE) 1 FK Sarajevo (BIH) 3 after extra time

Sarajevo win 4-3 on aggregate

At Brondby, Denmark

Brondby (DEN) 0 Club Brugge (BEL) 2

Club Brugge win 5-0 on aggregate

At Pilsen, Czech Republic

Viktoria Pilsen (CZE) 1 Petrolul Ploiesti (ROM) 4

Petrolul win 5-2 on aggregate

At Tripoli, Greece

Asteras (GRE) 3 Mainz (GER) 1

Asteras win 3-2 on aggregate

At Turin, Italy

Torino (ITA) 4 Brommapojkarma (SWE) 0

Torino win 7-0 on aggregate

At Lyon, France

Lyon (FRA) 2 Mlada Boleslav (CZE) 1

Lyon win 6-2 on aggregate

At Hull, England

Hull City (ENG) 2 Trencin (SVK) 1

Hull win 2-1 on aggregate

At Hafnarfjoerdur, Iceland

FH Hafnarfjoerdur (ISL) 2 Elfsborg (SWE) 1

Elfsborg win 5-3 on aggregate

At Skopje

Metalurg Skopje (MKD) 0 Omonia Nicosia (CYP) 1

Omonia win 4-0 on aggregate

At Aberdeen, Scotland

Aberdeen (SCO) 2 Real Sociedad (ESP) 3

Real Sociedad win 5-2 on aggregate

At Vila do Conde, Portugal

Rio Ave (POR) 0 IFK Gothenburg (SWE) 0

Rio Ave win 1-0 on aggregate

At Chisinau

Zimbru Chisinau (MDA) 0 Groedig (AUT) 1

Aggregate 2-2, Zimbru win on away goals

At Rijeka, Croatia

Rijeka (CRO) 4 Vikingur (FRO) 0

Rijeka win 9-1 on aggregate

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