Sporting briefs

Ajax: Twente Enschede drew 0-0 with Ajax in the Dutch play-off final second leg yesterday to secure a place in the Champions League third qualifying round 2-1 on aggregate. Twente will play in the competition for the first time while Ajax, who finished the regular season as runners-up to champions PSV Eindhoven, have to settle for the UEFA Cup. In the play-off for a UEFA Cup first round place, Jeremain Lens struck in the 62nd minute to give NEC Nijmegen a 1-0 victory at NAC Breda after winning the first leg 6-0.

Hoffenheim: 1899 Hoffenheim completed a remarkable rise from the regional amateur leagues to the Bundesliga when they secured promotion with a 5-0 win against Greuther Fuerth yesterday. The team from Sinsheim, a village in south-western Germany, have been backed by Dietmar Hopp, the co-founder of software giant SAP, since the start of the 1990s when they were just another amateur club. They went up to the second division this time last year and yesterday's victory secured promotion to the top flight at the first attempt, behind Borussia Moenchengladbach and Cologne.

Numancia: Second division leaders Numancia secured promotion to the Primera Liga with a 0-0 draw at home to Alaves yesterday. Numancia are 12 points ahead of fourth-placed Real Sociedad with four games left to play and have a superior head-to-head record over the team from San Sebastian. It will be only the fourth season in the Spanish top flight for Numancia who last won promotion in 2004, only to return to the second division after finishing 19th in the 2004-5 campaign.

Nasri: Olympique Marseille playmaker Samir Nasri fuelled media speculation linking him with a move to Arsenal next season by saying on Saturday he might have played his last game for his Ligue 1 club. Asked to comment on a goal he scored against Racing Strasbourg in Saturday's final round of fixtures, Nasri told French television: "It is very important because it is perhaps my last match at the Stade Velodrome."