Europa League Play-Off Preview: The British Round-Up

Posted Thursday, August 26, 2010 by Goal.com

AEK - Dundee United (20:00 CET - OACA Spiros Louis, Athens, Greece)

Grecian club AEK would be pardoned if they have already started celebrating a place in the group stage of the Europa League. The Athens-based club defeated Dundee United 1-0 in the first-leg away at Tannadice Park in Dundee, thanks to an 11th minute goal from Rafik Djebbour.

The Scottish side will have to score at least once in Athens on Thursday evening in order to sustain any hope of qualifying for the group stage. Ahead of the kick-off, there has been confusion over the venue as AEK's Olympic Stadium has been deemed unplayable by Uefa.

United were hammered 4-0 by Inverness in the Scottish Premier League on Sunday and manager Peter Houston has warned his players ahead of their trip to Greece. He is quoted by the BBC as saying, "We've got a big game on Thursday and a big game on Sunday, so we will be looking for a response. I can't put up with more performances like that.
"We got a lot of praise last season, but we've got to put to bed what happened last season and work harder and realise that everybody is going to come here and try to beat us."

Utrecht - Celtic (20:30 CET, Stadion Galgenwaard, Utrecht, Netherlands)

Scottish giants Celtic are one foot into the group stage of the Europa League after defeating Dutch club Utrecht 2-0 at home in the first-leg last week, Efrain Juarez and Georgios Samaras with the goals at Celtic Park in Glasgow.

However, Celtic manager Neil Lennon believes that the tie is still in the balance and said last week, "Have you seen our away record? You are never comfortable. But, if you had asked me before the game if I'd have taken 2-0, I would have said yes against a very good side."

Europa League Play-Off Preview: The British Round-Up

TNS - CSKA Sofia (20:35 CET, The Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, Wales)

The Bulgarian side defeated Welsh champions The New Saints FC 3-0 in the first-leg of their Europa League play-off tie last week at the Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia. Giuseppe Aquaro, Gregory Nelson and Spas Delev scored the goals and interestingly all of them came in the last 10 minutes. It will be a big ask of TNS to overhaul the three-goal deficit.

Motherwell - Odense (20:45 CET, Fir Park, Motherwell, Scotland)

This particular Europa League play-off tie is in the balance. The first-leg between Odense and Motherwell in Denmark finished in a 2-1 win for the hosts but having scored a crucial away goal, Scottish side Motherwell will be looking forward to finishing the job at home.