Dortmund downed as German quartet advance

BV Borussia Dortmund's defeat on penalties against Udinese Calcio was the only blemish on an excellent night for the German sides in the UEFA Cup that saw four of their five sides progress to the Group stage. Jürgen Klopp's side and Hamburger SV were the only winners from the Bundesliga contingent but draws were sufficient for VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg and FC Schalke 04 to qualify.

Udinese Calcio 0-2 BV Borussia Dortmund (agg: 2-2, Udinese win 4-3 on pens)
Tamás Hajnal struck in added time of both halves to earn Dortmund a second chance in the competition only for Udinese to delight the home fans in the penalty shoot-out. Dortmund seemed out of the tie after their 2-0 home loss a fortnight ago but having already gone close through Florian Kringe they pulled one back on aggregate through Hajnal after good work by Lee Young-Pyo on the right. The visitors now put Udinese under real pressure and Samir Handanovič did well to deny Sebastian Kehl, but he was beaten two minutes into injury time when substitute Nelson Valdez connected with a long throw and, although his effort was blocked, Hajnal converted the rebound. Fabio Quagliarella and Simone Pepe came close for Udinese in extra time but, after both sides missed their first penalties through Hajnal and Maurizio Domizzi, Jakub Błaszczykowski was also unsuccessful for Dortmund and substitute Aleksandar Luković struck the decisive spot-kick.

VfB Stuttgart 2-2 PFC Cherno More Varna (agg: 4-3)
The hosts narrowly avoided a major upset by recovering from a two-goal deficit with seven minutes remaining to squeeze past the Bulgarian outfit. After losing the first leg 2-1 at home, the visitors turned the tie around with goals from Yordan Yurukov (48) and Georgi Rusev (79) to leave Stuttgart on the brink of elimination. But Thomas Hitzlsperger levelled the aggregate score from ten metres for Armin Veh's team and, just when everyone was preparing for extra time, Mario Gómez headed home Cacau's corner three minutes into stoppage time to stun Nikola Spasov's charges.

FC Rapid Bucureşti 1-1 VfL Wolfsburg (agg: 1-2) 
Rapid exited the UEFA Cup against a German side again, after falling to 1. FC Nürnberg at this stage last season, although the Romanian side can have no complaints. Cláudio Mejolaro missed two chances for the hosts early on before Wolfsburg striker Grafite opened the scoring with a spectacular shot from 15 metres after a quarter of an hour. Rapid goalkeeper Elinton Andrade made three fantastic saves as the visitors stayed in control until 20 minutes from time when Mejolaro's long-range free-kick was tipped on to the bar by Diego Benaglio and Vasile Maftei followed up to score although the home side created little in their attempts to force extra time.

AFC Unirea Urziceni 0-2 Hamburger SV (agg: 0-2)
The Romanian side's hopes of creating a major upset in their first-ever European tie were dashed as Martin Jol's men made amends for their goalless draw in Germany two weeks ago. Unirea's forward Bogdan Mara had a good opportunity in the 19th minute but Bastian Reinhardt's last-ditch challenge denied him and that proved decisive on 27 minutes when Mladen Petrić opened the scoring. Unirea reacted positively but the Croatian international's second strike on 51 minutes, the conversion of a perfect pass from Piotr Trochowski, put the result beyond doubt for the Bundesliga leaders.

FC Schalke 04 1-1 APOEL FC (agg: 5-2)
Schalke boss Fred Rutten rested a number of his key players with his side 4-1 to the good after the first meeting as the German outfit completed their passage into the group stage. The visitors took advantage of the unfamiliar line-up of their hosts by taking a sixth-minute lead when Kamil Kosowski capitalised on a Kevin Kuranyi mistake, feeding Hélio Pinto to fire into the left corner from 15 metres. The Cypriot side held that advantage until just before the hour when Christian Pander drove home a free-kick in an otherwise uneventful contest at the Arena AufSchalke.