Zenit, Feyenoord & Celtic disappoint

Zenit, Feyenoord & Celtic were all rated higher than AEL Limassol, Besiktas, Legia Warszawa but all had to accept defeat. Meanwhile, Lille also found a big advantage before the second leg after defeating the home team Grasshopper 2-0.

Celtic (dark shirt) lost heavily in Poland

Having to play away at AEL Limassol, it seemed that the "Russian giant" Zenit would not have much difficulty overcoming the representative of Cyprus. However, on a day when the stars of the team from the land of the White Birch squandered their chances, they paid a heavy price with a goal in the 64th minute scored by Gikiewicz. Three minutes later, Zenit's efforts to find an equalizer went up in smoke due to midfielder Witsel's red card. The match ended with a score of 1-0 belonging to AEL Limassol.

The match considered the most balanced in this round was the clash between Feyenoord and Besiktas. With reasonable tactics, the Turkish representative quickly "poured cold water" on Feyenoord fans with Pektemek's goal (13'). In the 71st minute, Frei doubled the gap for the away team before Mitchell te Vrede saved some hope for the home team in the upcoming second leg with a successful penalty kick in the last minute of the match.

Meanwhile, Lille only needed less than 50 minutes to deal with the home team Grasshoppers after shining situations of Corchia (29') and Ryan Mendes (49').

Vrdoljak (left) could not score despite having a very clear chance

The most notable defeat in this match was Celtic's 1-4 loss to Legia Warszawa and early playing with 10 men after Ambrose received a red card in the 44th minute. The away team Celtic opened the scoring early in the match against Legia Warszawa thanks to McGregor (8') but in an explosive day of play, the Polish representative came back to win 4-1 after shining situations from Radovic (10', 36'), Zyro (84'), Kosecki (90').

However, Celtic also had to thank "luck" because they could have lost exactly 1 tennis set if Ivica Vrdoljak had successfully executed two penalties in the 59th and 87th minutes.

The second leg of the third qualifying round of the Champions League will take place on August 6 and 7.

Champions League 3rd qualifying round first leg results

Aktobe 2 - 2 Steaua Bucuresti
AEL Limassol1 - 0 Zenit
Grasshoppers 0 - 2Lille
Feyenoord 1 - 2Besiktas
Standard Liege 0 - 0 Panathinaikos
Legia Warsaw4 - 1 Celtic
FK Karabakh2 - 1 Salzburg
Dnipro 0 - 0 FC Koebenhavn
HJK 2 - 2 APOEL Nicosia
PFC Ludogorets Razgrad 0 - 0 Partizan Belgrade
AaB 0 - 1Dinamo Zagreb
Maribor1 - 0 Maccabi Tel Aviv

According to Bongdaplus