Away wins for Porto and Zenit

Two-time European Cup winners Porto nudged a little nearer to the Champions League group stage on Wednesday evening, with a 1-0 win in Lille.

Despite a solid performance from Lille, which frustrated the Portuguese side for most of the game, Porto finally got the break they were looking for when Mexico midfielder Hector Herrera sidefooted the ball in on 61 minutes. Progress would mean a fourth consecutive appearance in the group stages for Porto.

Russian visitors Zenit St. Petersburg, meanwhile, prevailed against Belgians Standard Liege courtesy of Oleg Shatov, who netted in the 16th thanks to an assist by Brazilian striker Hulk.

The other three games of the night on which home advantage appeared to count for little were all 1-1 draws.

Scottish champions Celtic, also former European Cup winners, were held to a draw away to Slovenia's Maribor, but did manage a crucial away goal to take into the next leg. The Glasgow side went ahead after just six minutes, through youngster Callum McGregor, only for Damjan Bohar to level the scores for the home side less than quarter-of-an-hour in.

Advantage to Borisov

After his side went behind to Belarusian visitors BATE Borisov, Slovan Bratislava striker Robert Vittek equalized 10 minutes from time to make it 1-1.

APOEL Nicosia, who were surprise quarter finalists in the 2011-12 competition, grabbed a useful away goal through Brazilian midfielder Vinicius. The Cypriots champions had gone behind to Danish side Aalborg in the 16th minute, when Nicolaj Thomsen netted from the edge of the area.

In the first set of third-round qualifying games on Tuesday, Bayer Leverkusen won 3-2 against FC Copenhagen thanks to goals from Stefan Kiessling, Karim Bellarabi and Heung-Min Son. Leverkusen host Copenhagen on August 27, with this week's Wednesday's games to be played on the 26th.

rc/jr (AP, APF, Reuters)