Arsenal swept into the Champions League group stages last night after completing a 5-1 play-off romp over Celtic at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal swept into the Champions League group stages last night after completing a 5-1 play-off romp over Celtic at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners join last year's finalists Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the competition from the English Premier League where big spenders Real Madrid, as well as Juventus and Inter Milan will, as second seeds, all be potential opposition along with Rangers, 2004 champions Porto and Lyon.
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Andrei Arshavin started on the bench, but scored in the second half for Arsenal against Celtic. pic/afp |
Two goals to the good after the opening game in Glasgow, the Gunners all but sewed up their passage to the lucrative mini-league with a penalty from Croatian Eduardo on 27 minutes.
Motoring into the penalty box, the Rio-born forward went over the outstretched arms of onrushing Celtic keeper Artur Goruc far too easily for travelling fans of the Scottish side, the first British European Cup winners in 1967.
Eduardo rolled the ball home to make it 1-0 on the night.
Further goals from Emmanuel Eboue (54th minute) and Russian substitute Andrei Arshavin (74th minute) increased the margin but Massimo Donati at least had the crumb of satisfaction of scoring the goal of the night, a sublime volley right at the death.
Arsenal have lost Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Manchester City since last season's run to the semis -u00a0where they lost to Unitedu00a0- but they have begun the season superbly and now can look forward to the competition proper after last night's win.
Celtic boss Tony Mowbray said: "I haven't seen the reruns but all the boys felt there wasn't any contact for the penalty."
Champions league play-off results
Apoel Nicosia 3 (Kosowski 2, Michael 18-pen, 41) bt FC Copenhagen 1 (N'Doye 22)
Apoel Nicosia win 3-2 on aggregate
Arsenal 3 (Eduardo 28-pen, Eboue 53, Arshavin 74) bt Celtic 1 (Donati 90)
Arsenal win 5-1 on aggregate
Fiorentina 1 (Jovetic 54)drew with Sporting Lisbon 1 (Joao Moutinho 35)
3-3 on aggregate, Fiorentina win on away goals
Olympiakos 1 (Mitroglou 82) Sheriff 0
Olympiakos win 3-0 on aggregate
VfB Stuttgart 0 Politehnica Timisoara 0
VfB Stuttgart win 2-0 on aggregate
