The biggest casualty was Crvena Zvezda (commonly known as Red Star Belgrade). They bowed out 4-1 on aggregate to Kazakhs Kairat Almaty. The Serbs gave themselves a mountain to climb with the early red card in the first leg and the concession of two away goal to Almaty made it difficult and played in Kairat's hands.
Other sides to bit the bullet were Dinamo Tbilisi, Go Ahead Eagles, Sherriff Tiraspol and St Johnstone.
The St Johnstone result was probably a shock since they were expected to get through against Armenians Alashkert Yerevan. In the end they bowed out on away goals. Aberdeen did at least get through so all was not lost for Scottish representation.
Mixed bag for Ireland
Ireland had a mixed round. We'll start with Cork City as they limped out to KR Reykjavík. Taking a 1-1 scoreline into the 2nd leg City got the perfect start with an early goal to edge in front. Any more goals for city at this point would mean KR would've had to win the game outright. Instead City invited KR onto them. KR were also down to ten just before half-time but it was them that preceded dominate but lacked a cutting edge up front until the 75th minute when they found the breakthrough. The tie went to extra-time and KR got a 2nd goal which left City needing to score to go through. The goal never came and it was the Icelandic's that progressed.
St Pat's also crashed out of Europe as Skonto Riga won 2-0 in Inchicore. Pat's were beaten in the first leg but had the away goal which was hoped would be vital. However the Latvian side registered a 2-0 win and left Pat's ruing what might have been.
Shamrock Rovers did progress but only after a scoreless first leg in Luxembourg against Progrés Niederkorn. A 3-0 win in Tallaght on Tuesday saw Rovers through in comfortable style.
The biggest news from Ireland though was UCD. The Dubliners who are actually playing first division football this season progressed against leading Luxemburg side F91 Dudelange on away goals. The 2nd leg saw UCD lose 2-1 but that away goal was enough to squeeze through. The award? a tie against Slovan Bratislava.
The North lost Glentoran as they were beaten easily by MSK Zilina from Slovakia. Glenavon are also gone after a 5-1 aggregate defeat to Shaktyor Solihorsk of Belarus. Linfield however did progress although the almost didn't as they lost the away leg 4-3 to NSÍ Runavík from the Faroe Islands. Linfield will play Spartak Trnava of Slovakia in the next round.
Trashings
There were a few trashing with the notable one being Brondby putting 11 past Juvenes/Dogana of San Marino over two legs. A 9-0 win at home rendered the 2nd leg a dead-rubber but a 2-0 success for the Danes saw them continue with the goalscoring form to take into the 2nd qualifying round where they will face Beroe of Bulgaria.
Jagiellonia Bialystok were also big winners with a 9-0 aggregate win over Lithuanians Kruoja. However it took a stoppage time winner in the first leg for them to take a lead into the home leg where they ran riot putting eight past the Lithuanians on Thursday.
Elfsborg made things look easy with a 5-0 2nd leg win over Lahti from Finland to go through 7-2 on aggregate while AIK posted a 4-0 2nd leg win to go through 6-2 over two legs against VPS from Finalnd as well.
Slovan Bratislava were 9-0 aggregate winners over Europa from Gibraltar and Vaduz registered a 10-1 aggregate scoreline against La Fiorita of San Marino.
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