Ten-man BATE too strong for Ekranas

FC BATE Borisov sealed their place in the UEFA Champions League play-offs thanks to a 3-1 aggregate victory against Lithuania's FK Ekranas.

Vitali Rodionov opened the scoring for the hosts on 18 minutes but Andrius Velička equalised soon after. Renan Bressan's goal ten minutes before the break put the Belarusian side back in front, yet the 22-year-old received his marching orders five minutes later when he received his second yellow card. Ekranas piled on the pressure in the second half but Mikhail Gordeychuk's 89th-minute strike ended the visitors' challenge.

With the score goalless from last week's first leg, it was the hosts who took control early on, Rodionov forcing Emilijus Zubas into a fine save inside two minutes. Zubas was called into action again when Dmitri Baga met Aleksandr Yurevich's cross, but there was nothing he could do to stop Rodionov giving BATE the lead. Their advantage did not last long, though, as four minutes later Aleksandr Gutor found Velička's strike too hot to handle and the forward made no mistake at the second attempt.

It was Bressan who restored the hosts' advantage before half-time, though the attention he captured was not for entirely positive reasons. First, the former FC Gomel midfielder kept his cool when one-on-one with Zubar; then, however, he was dismissed for a foul on Mauro Alonso, his second booking in five minutes.

Viktor Goncharenko's side were undeterred by their numerical disadvantage in the second half and, although Aurimas Vertelis and Mantas Samusiovas went close for the visitors, it was the Belarusian champions who had the last laugh when Gordeychuk latched on to fellow substitute Filipp Rudik's pass to make it 3-1 in the 89th minute. BATE will find out their play-off opponents in Friday's draw as they go in search of a first group stage appearance since 2008/09.