Tottenham, Swansea and Fiorentina all progressed to the group stages of the Europa League after completing aggregate victories yesterday.
Tottenham’s second string gave manager Andre Villas-Boas plenty to ponder ahead of this weekend’s derby against Arsenal as they put in an impressive performance to help the north London club to a 3-0 win over Dinamo Tbilisi to progress 8-0 on aggregate.
With £60million worth of new signings added to this squad this summer, and at least another three players on their way in, there has been little talk of the importance of the likes of Jermain Defoe and Lewis Holtby to the new-look Tottenham so far this season.
Yet the duo gave their manager a timely reminder of their talents last night.
Defoe fired a peach of a left foot strike past Giorgi Loria to open the scoring after 40 minutes and the England striker doubled his tally in first-half injury time with a tap-in.
The spotlight was taken away from Defoe slightly towards the end of the second half thanks to Holtby, who opened his Tottenham scoring account in style with a powerful 20-yard strike that flew in off the underside of the bar.
Fiorentina were the only Italian side to qualify to the group stages despite losing their return leg to Swiss side Grasshopers 1-0 as they progressed on the away goals’ rule after the tie ended 2-2.
Ben Khalifa profited from a poor clearance from Fiorentina goalkeeper Neto to put his team ahead but the Swiss side failed to grab a second goal that would have put them through.
Swansea suffered a disappointing defeat in Romania but still advanced to the group stages of the Europa League at the expense of Petrolul, of Romania.
Priso scores
The hosts, trailing 5-1 after last week’s first leg, never looked capable of turning the contest on its head but they did take the lead on the night through former Valletta striker Njongo Priso’s 73rd minute strike.
Roland Lamah responded instantly, but Hamza Younes headed home the winner for the hosts before Swansea captain Leon Britton was sent off late on.