EUROPA LEAGUE: Playoffs first-leg update

English Premier League sides Swansea City and Tottenham Hotspur cruised through their playoff first-leg with emphatic victories, and barring a miracle, both will be drawn out of the hat in the group stage draw next Friday.

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The impending departure of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid did not falter Spurs charge into the Europa League, easily disposing of Dinamo Tbilisi by 5-0 on early Thursday evening. After a five-hour flight over to Georgia midweek, Andres Villas-Boas’ men did not show any sign of jetlag scoring their first goal on 12 minutes through Man-of-the-Match Andros Townsend. Spanish striker Roberto Soldado showed his great finishing prowess by snatching a double with Paulinho and Danny Rose adding to the tally.

After eliminating Eredivisie side Vitesse in the last round, Romanian’s FC Petrolul fell heavily 5-1 at Swansea City. The ultra-fast winger Wayne Routledge netted a first-half brace, Spanish duo Michu and Alejandro Pozuelo also got on the scoresheet. Petrolul’s Portuguese goalkeeper Peçanha unfortunately added a fifth for the Welshmen. However, the goal of the night was scored by the Romainian side with 22-year-old striker Gheorghe Grozav scoring a wonderful overhead kick past Swans’ ‘keeper Michel Vorm late on.

Dutch giants Feyenoord were defeated 1-0 in Russia by Kuban Krasnodar. Senegalese striker Ibrahima Baldé got the only goal of the game on the hour mark. This is Ronald Koeman’s Feyenoord fourth successive defeat already this season.

The shock of the round came as Udinese tasted a 3-1 defeat at home to Czech side Slovan Liberic. Cedric scored a 86th minute winner for La Liga side Real Betis at they came out 2-1 victors at FK Jablonec. Ukrainian’s Dynamo Kiev emerged as 3-2 winners in a five-goal thriller against Kazakhstan side FC Aktobe.