Olympiakos, Dinamo win CL playoff 1st leg
BERN, Switzerland, Aug 22, (AP): Olympiakos and Dinamo Zagreb took big steps toward returning to the Champions League group stage with convincing wins in the first leg of their playoff-round games on Wednesday.
Olympiakos scored three late goals to beat Russian debutants Krasnodar 4-0, and Dinamo struck twice in the first half hour in a 2-0 win over Rosenborg.
Young Boys were the only home team not to win, needing a 76th-minute penalty awarded by video review – and scored by French veteran Guillaume Hoarau – to secure a 2-2 draw with Red Star Belgrade.
Red Star, playing their seventh qualifying game in seven weeks, are trying to advance from the first qualifying round to the group stage in back-to-back seasons.
Olympiakos played the first of their 18 Champions League campaigns more than a decade before Krasnodar was founded in 2008.
The Greek runners-up took the lead in the 30th through Spanish forward Miguel Ángel Guerrero. A flurry of goals from the 78th minute by Lazar Randelovic, twice, and Daniel Podence gave Krasnodar a daunting task in the second leg next Tuesday.
Once a Champions League regular, Rosenborg trailed to an early penalty by Dinamo’s Bruno Petkovic, and Mislav Orsic doubled the lead in the 28th.
Red Star, the 1991 European champions, trailed to a seventhminute goal by Young Boys forward Roger Assalé that was leveled in the 18th by Australia defender Milos Degenek’s looping header.
Mateo Garcia put the Serbian champions ahead a minute into the second half, before Hourau came off the bench to level from the spot. The 35-year-old former France international went close to winning the game for the Swiss champions with a glancing header in the 89th.