Last-minute Kiwi gives Bruges the blues

They may be in the second tier Championship but Birmingham City are faring solidly in the Europa League and a last-minute effort by Kiwi forward Chris Wood secured a 2-1 win at Belgium’s Club Brugge yesterday to bolster hopes of winning their group.

Wood, a summer loan signing from West Bromwich Albion, struck with seconds left on the clock to make it two wins out of three for Chris Hughton’s side as they went level on top of Group H with their beaten rivals.

Wood, who represented New Zealand at last year’s World Cup finals, scored in the 10th minute of injury time to complete a comeback after Joseph Akpala had put the hosts ahead just three minutes.

David Murphy levelled with a neatly-taken goal on 26 minutes to cheer more than 5,000 travelling fans, who were dismayed to see their team drop out of the Premier League last May having only just lifted the League Cup under Hugh­ton’s predecessor Alex McLeish.

The added time followed treatment for Blues’ defender Pablo Ibanez, who was earlier knocked unconscious in a collision with Akpala.

Hughton saw his decisions to ring the changes rewarded with the three points after he left out keeper Colin Doyle following a howler against NK Maribor last month, with Boaz Myhill coming in instead.

Group rivals Sporting Braga and Maribor parted 1-1 to leave Birmingham and Brugge both two points clear of the third-placed team.

The top two in each group qualify for the next round, where they will be joined by eight teams who finish third in Champions League group stages.

Elsewhere, Fulham were unable to emulate Birmingham’s success as the Cottagers crashed 1-0 on their Group K travels at Wisla Krakow, of Poland, with Israeli Dudu Biton netting the only goal on the hour.

Dutch outfit Twente won 4-1 at Denmark’s Odense to establish a three-point lead at the top of the group but Fulham hang on to second spot after Odense’s loss which gave Krakow their first points.

There was better news for Fulham’s Premier League fellows in the late kick-offs as Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City continued with their march in their respective groups.

Roman Pavlyuchenko gave Harry Redknapp a timely reminder of his talents by firing in a brilliant 20-yard free-kick to hand Tottenham a close 1-0 win over Rubin Kazan at White Hart Lane.

Pavlyuchenko blasted home an early contender for goal of the season with a powerful strike that flew in off the bar, just 24 hours after Redknapp admitted he would consider selling the striker in the January transfer window.

At the Britannia Stadium, Cameron Jerome was contro-versially sent off as Stoke strolled to a comfortable 3-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv to consolidate their position at the top of Group E.

It seemed little could go wrong for the Potters after first-half headers from Kenwyne Jones and Jerome and a finish from Ryan Shotton had put them firmly in the driving seat.

They were then reduced to 10 men as Jerome collected a second yellow card in the 43rd minute having been adjudged to have elbowed Yoav Ziv.

However, the Maccabi player was shown red in a bizarre incident early in the second half and the hosts had little trouble seeing out the victory from there.

Celtic were held 1-1 at French side Rennes, who took the lead through Cha Du-ri’s own-goal after half an hour.

Jo Ledley equalised midway through the second half to ensure Celtic still entertain albeit faint hopes of getting through from Group I, where they have two points from their three games to date, as do Rennes.

Udinese scored twice late on in Italy to see off Spaniards Atletico Madrid to go top of the group and leave their rivals just two points clear of the stragglers.

Lazio were held to a 1-1 draw by FC Zurich in a Group D encounter at the Letzigrund Stadium.

Giuseppe Sculli put Lazio ahead in the 22nd minute but Zurich equalised seconds later through Nikci Adrian.

Both teams spurned chances to take all three points and the result will be of little comfort for either side, who are winless after three games.

In Group J, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar netted twice as leaders Schalke swamped Cypriot side AEK Larnaca 5-0 away while Maccabi Haifa inflicted the same scoreline on former European champions Steaua Bucharest.

Results and standings

Group A

Tottenham vs Rubin Kazan 1-0; PAOK vs Shamrock Rovers 2-1.
Standings: Tottenham 7; PAOK 5; Rubin 4; Shamrock 0.

Group B

S. Liege vs Vorskla Poltava 0-0; Hanover vs Copenhagen 2-2.
Standings: S. Liege, Hanover 5; Copenhagen 4; Vorskla 1.

Group C

R. Bucharest vs Legia Warsaw 0-1; Hapoel Tel-Aviv vs PSV 0-1.
Standings: PSV 9; L. Warsaw 6; R. Bucharest 3; Hapoel 0.

Group D

Sporting Lisbon vs Vaslui 2-0; Zurich vs Lazio 1-1.
Standings: S. Libson 9; Vaslui, Lazio, Zurich 2.

Group E

Stoke City vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv 3-0; D. Kiev vs Besiktas 1-0.
Standings: Stoke 7; D. Kiev 5; Besiktas 3; Maccabi 1.

Group F

A. Bilbao vs Salzburg 2-2; S. Bratislava vs Paris SG 0-0.
Standings: A. Bilbao 7; PSG, Salzburg 4; S. Bratislava 1.

Group G

Malmo vs Metalist Kharkiv 1-4; AZ Alkmaar vs Austria Vienna 2-2.
Standings: M. Kharkiv 7; AZ Alkmaar 5; A. Vienna 4; Malmo 0.

Group H

Maribor vs Braga 1-1; Bruges vs Birmingham 1-2.
Standings: Bruges, Birmingham 6; Braga 4; Maribor 1.

Group I

Rennes vs Celtic 1-1; Udinese vs Atletico Madrid 2-0.
Standings: Udinese 7; Atl. Madrid 4; Rennes, Celtic 2.

Group J

AEK Larnaca vs Schalke 0-5; Maccabi Haifa vs S. Bucharest 5-0.
Standings: Schalke 7; Maccabi 6; S. Bucharest 2; AEK Larnaca 1.

Group K

OB Odense vs Twente 1-4; Wisla Krakow vs Fulham 1-0.
Standings: Twente 7; Fulham 4; Odense, W. Krakow 3.

Group L

L. Moscow vs AEK Athens 3-1; Sturm Graz vs Anderlecht 0-2.
Standings: Anderlecht 9; Lok. Mos-cow 6; S. Graz 3; AEK 0.