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Rukavytsya, Rangers' ECL run continues

Staff WritersAAP
Rangers captain James Tavernier scored in their dramatic Champions League qualifying win. (EPA PHOTO)
Camera IconRangers captain James Tavernier scored in their dramatic Champions League qualifying win. (EPA PHOTO) Credit: EPA

Fringe Socceroo Nikita Rukavytsya is possibly 180 minutes away from featuring in European football's lucrative Champions League group stage.

The 35-year-old, who has played 20 times for the national team, but not since June 2021, was a late substitute in Maccabi Haifa's 2-0 loss in Cyprus to Apollon Limassol on Tuesday night.

But the 4-0 first-leg win saw them progress on aggregate, and they next face Serbia's Red Star Belgrade after the 1991 European Cup winners eased to a 2-0 win at Armenia's Pyunik for a 7-0 aggregate score.

Rukavytsya has finished top goalscorer in the Israeli Premier League twice in the last three seasons, and earlier this year became the leading foreign goalscorer.

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Elsewhere, Rangers rewrote their own record books with a thrilling third qualifying round win over Belgium's Union Saint-Gilloise at Ibrox to go through 3-2 on aggregate.

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Last season's Europa League finalists had never overcome a 2-0 defeat away from home in the first leg of a European tie, but a James Tavernier penalty and headed goals from Antonio Colak and Malik Tillman took the Glasgow giants through.

"It was an amazing night for all of us," Gers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst said.

"We needed a big performance and the pressure was on us after last week.

"We know we are capable of delivering big nights for the club. But still you have to do it over and over again.

"We want to be in the Champions League and I saw the desire in my players."

Dynamo Kyiv's unlikely run continued with a 2-1 extra-time win over Sturm Graz in Austria for a 3-1 victory on aggregate.

The Ukrainian's four qualifying games in the past 20 days are the only competitive matches they have played all year because of Russia's war on their country. And they will host Portugal's Benfica in the first leg next week in Lodz, Poland, where they are playing "home" games in the European competition.

Benfica eased past Midtjylland 7-2 on aggregate with a 3-1 win in Denmark.

PSV Eindhoven also needed an extra-time goal to overcome Monaco 3-2 and 4-3 on aggregate.

Moldova champions Sheriff lost 2-1 at Viktoria Plzen to go out 4-2 on aggregate against the Czech champions.

They next face Qarabag after the Azerbaijan title holders shocked Ferencvaros 3-1 in Budapest to advance 4-2 on aggregate.

Bodo/Glimt drew 1-1 in Lithuania that completed a 6-1 aggregate win over Zalgiris.

The Norwegians will host Dinamo Zagreb next week, after the Croatian champion's 4-2 win at home to Bulgaria's Ludogorets made it 6-3 on aggregate.

With agencies.

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