Celtic beats HJK Helsinki 2-0 in CL qualifying

LONDON (AP) — Scotland champion Celtic beat HJK Helsinki of Finland 2-0 at the Finnair Stadium Wednesday for a 4-1 aggregate victory in one of 12 Champions League third qualifying round matches.

Midfielder Joe Ledley in the 67th minute and striker Giorgos Samaras in the 86th secured the second-leg victory for Celtic, which advances to the play-off stage, the final qualifying hurdle ahead of the Champions League group stage.

The 20 teams in the playoff round will be drawn into 10 matchups on Friday. The playoff winners will join the 22 clubs that qualified directly for the group stage.

In other results, Anderlecht of Belgium completed the most one-sided victory of the stage when it topped Ekranas of Lithuania 6-0 for an 11-0 aggregate victory while Greek side Panathinaikos beat Scotland's Motherwell 3-0 for a 5-0 aggregate win.

Other sides to advance were: Maribor (Slovenia), Helsingborg (Sweden), Kiryat Shmona (Israel), Cluj (Romania), Basel (Switzerland), Fenerbahce (Turkey), Copenhagen (Denmark), AEL Limassol (Cyprus), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia).

Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine and Belarus' BATE Borisov advanced on Tuesday.

Six teams start play in the final qualifying round: Borussia Moenchengladbach, Braga, Lille, Malaga, Spartak Moscow and Udinese.