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Journalism of Courage
Two-goal wins for Maccabi Haifa and Genk gave the two unheralded clubs from Israel and Belgium a toe-hold into the first stage of the Champions League on Tuesday.
Maccabi Haifa beat Sturm Graz of Austria 2-0 in their third qualifying round first leg match played in neutral Sofia because of the security situation in Israel.
Two goals from 19-year-old Nigerian Yakubu Ayegbeni after 17 minutes and just seconds from full time gave Maccabi the win in a match which attracted just 600 fans and left them poised to become the first Israeli side to reach the group stages of Europe’s elite club competition.
Genk won by the same score over Sparta Prague in Belgium thanks to first half goals from Bernd Thijs and Mirsad Beslija. The most dramatic match of the five qualifiers played on Tuesday was in Cyprus where AEK Athens beat APOEL Nicosia 3-2 after the Cypriots thought they had saved the tie with an 89th minute penalty from Costas Malekkos. But AEK had other ideas and scored the winner with almostthe last kick through Demis Nikolaidis. (Reuters)
