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Club Bruges clinch UEFA Champions League spot on penalties [Thu Aug 25th, 2005]
Bruges (Reuters) - Belgium's Club Bruges booked their place in the UEFA Champions League group stage with a 4-3 victory on penalties over Norway's Valerenga in their third qualifying round second leg tie.
Trailing 1-0 after the first leg, Bruges levelled the tie with a Bosko Balaban goal in the 79th minute and then won the penalty shoot-out after two superb saves by Bruges goalkeeper Tomislav Butina and a decisive spot kick by Balaban.
The home side, desperate for an early goal, went close twice in the first quarter of an hour.
After just two minutes, Bruges captain Gert Verheyen's shot was turned around the post by an outstretched Valerenga goalkeeper Gautur Arason and, 10 minutes later, a 25-yard strike by Michael Klukowski was saved by Arason.
Ivan Leko, Gaetan Englebert and Balaban also had chances for Bruges before the break.
The home side continued to dominate possession in the second half but failed to breach the Valerenga defence until the 79th minute when substitute Gregory Duffer's through ball set up Balaban to score.
Five minutes later, Valerenga had captain Kjetil Waehler sent off for lashing out at Verheyen and the Norwegians were forced to hold out with 10 men.
Ten minutes into extra time, the visitors almost snatched the lead when Adrian Gashi struck the crossbar from just outside the penalty area.
With the match still level after extra time, Butina gave Bruges the early advantage by saving the second penalty from Bernt Hulsker before his counterpart Arason followed suit against Duffer.
Butina, however, managed to get a hand to a Freddy Dos Santos strike to pull off another good save before Balaban sealed the win.
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