Basel victory reaps Celtic tie

FC Basel 3-0 MŠK Zilina (Basel win 4-1 on aggregate)
Celtic FC, European Champion Clubs' Cup winners in 1967, are FC Basel's opponents in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round after the Swiss side outclassed MŠK Zilina in tonight's second leg.

Early Zilina chance
Basel, the Swiss champions, held a slight advantage after drawing 1-1 away last week, but that was nearly eradicated in the second minute when Miroslav Nemec went agonisingly close to giving the Slovakian champions what could have been a priceless away goal.

Gimenez opener
Nemec's shot wide was the closest Zilina came to scoring, however, and Basel moved firmly into the ascendancy when Christian Gimenez opened the scoring with a close-range header after 12 minutes following Antonio Esposito's lobbed pass.

Sweet free-kick
The home side virtually wrapped up the tie eleven minutes later when Murat Yakin scored with the sweetest of free-kicks after his brother, Hakan, was brought down just outside the area. Basel nearly went in three goals to the good but they were denied what would have been a deserved advantage when Julio Rossi struck the bar.

Safely through
The third goal was not long in coming, though, Gimenez heading his second goal of the match five minutes after the restart following Mario Cantaluppi's precise corner.