Sevilla, who reached the last 16 of the Champions League last season, were handed a shock playoff defeat by unfashionable Braga on Tuesday while Werder Bremen pulled off a spectacular escape act to oust Sampdoria.
Substitute Lima, 27, a Brazilian journeyman forward, came on to score a second-half hat-trick to give Braga a 4-3 win in Spain and send the Portuguese outfit into the group stage for the first time, 5-3 on aggregate.
Werder, leading 3-1 from the first leg, went 3-0 down at Sampdoria before substitute Markus Rosenberg scored in the third minute of stoppage time to set up extra-time.
PHOTO: AP
Claudio Pizarro then netted as the Bundesliga team lost 3-2 on the night but qualified 5-4 on aggregate to leave Spain and Italy with only three teams in Europe’s top club competition.
There was further drama as Partizan Belgrade knocked out Anderlecht 3-2 on penalties after drawing 2-2 in Belgium where the visitors let slip a two-goal lead in the last half hour.
It is the second time Partizan have qualified for the group stage. The first was in 2003 when they defeated Newcastle United.
Swiss league champions Basel won 3-0 at Sheriff Tiraspol to complete a 4-0 aggregate win over the Moldovans while Hapoel Tel Aviv qualified for the first time with a 1-1 home draw against Salzburg to clinch a 4-3 triumph overall.
It is the 10th season in a row Sheriff have failed to get through the qualifying stages while Salzburg, Austria’s biggest-spending team, have fallen at the final hurdle four times in five seasons.
Braga snatched an away goal in the 32nd minute through Matheus, who also struck in the 1-0 first leg win.
Sevilla had squandered a flurry of early chances with Brazil striker Luis Fabiano and Mali’s Frederic Kanoute the main culprits.
Lima, who played for a number of unfashionable Brazilian clubs before moving to Portugal last season to join Belenenses, doubled Braga’s lead in the 58th minute by slotting home Matheus’ pass.
Luis Fabiano and Jesus Navas hit back to make it 2-2 on the night, only for Lima to add two more goals in the last five minutes before Kanoute pulled one back for Sevilla in stoppage time.
Sampdoria, who grabbed an away goal in injury-time in Bremen last week, were quickly in the driving seat at home with Giampaolo Pazzini netting twice inside 13 minutes.
Substitute Antonio Cassano appeared to have sealed their win when he scored with a backheel five minutes from time but Rosenberg had other ideas as he struck with a low 20m shot with almost the last kick.
Peru striker Pizarro was then on target from 25m to shatter the Italians, who reached the 1992 European Cup final on their only previous appearance in the competition.
“It hurts because we were winning 3-0 and should have dealt with it better,” Sampdoria captain Angelo Palombo told Sky television. “It was a dream and would have meant lots of money to the club. I hope the squad stays together now.”
Striker Cleo, another Brazilian who has made a bigger impact abroad than at home, scored twice in the first hour to put Partizan 2-0 ahead at Anderlecht, taking his tally in the tournament to eight after he was also on target last week.
Seventeen-year-old Romelu Lukaku pulled one back for the Belgians just after the hour and Guillaume Gillet levelled in the 71st minute with a dipping shot from outside the area.
However Partizan, the only Serbian team to have reached the group stage, weathered the storm and won on penalties.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946