Europa League wrap: Liverpool survive Hearts scare

Liverpool reached the Europa League group stage with a fortunate 2-1 aggregate victory over Hearts after being held 1-1 at home on Thursday.

Leading 1-0 from the first leg at Tynecastle, Liverpool were held goalless by their Scottish Premier League visitors for much of the return match at Anfield.

Hearts then took the lead through David Templeton’s goal with five minutes remaining in normal time, thanks to a mistake from Spanish goalkeeper Pepe Reina.

It looked like the tie was set for extra-time, before a final individual strike from Luis Suarez with two minutes to go spared Liverpool’s blushes.

Elsewhere, Newcastle United joined Liverpool in the next stage following a 2-1 aggregate win over Greek side Atromitos.

After drawing the first leg 1-1 away from home, a Haris Vuckic goal in the 20th minute at St James’ Park was enough for Alan Pardew’s men to progress to the group phase.

Inter Milan were reduced to 10 men and held 2-2 at home by FC Vaslui, but progressed thanks to their 2-0 win from first leg in Romania.

Last season’s beaten finalists Athletic Bilbao advanced 9-3 on aggregate following a 3-3 draw away to 10-man HJK of Helsinki.

PSV Eindhoven romped to a 9-0 win in the second leg of their playoff with Zeta, beating the Montenegrin club 14-0 on aggregate.

Young Boys of Switzerland survived a scare, progressing 3-2 overall despite losing their return fixture 2-0 at home to FC Midtjylland of Denmark.

Yoan Gouffran’s 91st-minute penalty helped Bordeaux squeeze past Red Star Belgrade 3-2 following a goalless draw during the first leg in Serbia.

Club Brugge downed Debrecen 4-1 at home and 7-1 on aggregate, while Hannover thrashed Slask Wroclaw 5-1 on the night, 10-4 overall.

Samuel Eto’o was on the scoresheet as big-spending Russian Premier League side Anzhi Makhachkala registered an unexpected 5-0 win at Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar, going through 6-0 on aggregate.

Lazio cruised through after beating Slovenian side Mura 3-1 at home and 5-1 over two legs.

Ricky van Wolfswinkel struck twice as last season’s semi-finalists Sporting Lisbon downed Danish club AC Horsens 5-0 at home, 6-1 on aggregate.

Two matches went to extra-time on Thursday, with Leroy Fer’s 116th-minute goal giving Twente a 5-4 aggregate win over Bursaspor.

Bursaspor’s fellow Turkish club Trabzonspor also bowed out, losing on penalties at Hungarian side Videoton.

Other teams to progress to the group stage include Rapid Vienna, Partizan Belgrade, Levante, Marseille and Sparta Prague.

They were joined by Viktoria Plzen, Racing Genk, Metalist Kharkiv, Steaua Bucuresti and Rosenborg.

Molde, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, AIK, Dnipro and Maritimo also advanced.