Thirteen second legs kicked off across Europe on Tuesday evening. Five of them could not be settled in ninety minutes. By the end of the night the Champions League third qualifying round was complete, the play-off bracket was set, and two of the biggest names in the draw were gone.
The Night's Biggest Casualty: Olympiacos
Olympiacos could not break NEC Nijmegen down over 210 minutes. The first leg in Piraeus finished goalless. In Nijmegen, Ayoub El Kaabi put the Greek side ahead a minute into the second half, Bryan Linssen levelled on 70, and Emin Mor settled it in extra time for a 2-1 win and a 2-1 aggregate. NEC - a club with no European coefficient of their own, entering the ranking on the 20% floor of the Dutch association - knocked out a side rated 76.75 and took their place in the play-off round.
Third Qualifying Round — Champions Path
- 🇭🇷 Dinamo Zagreb 7-1 Kauno Žalgiris 🇱🇹 (5-0, 2-1)
- 🇸🇰 Slovan Bratislava 4-1 Mjällby AIF 🇸🇪 (2-1, 2-0)
- 🇧🇬 Levski Sofia 2-0 Kairat 🇰🇿 (1-0, 1-0)
- 🇦🇿 Sabah 5-2 AGF 🇩🇰 (1-2, 4-0)
- 🇸🇮 Celje 3-2 Ararat-Armenia 🇦🇲 (1-2, 2-0)
- 🇮🇱 Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3-0 Red Star Belgrade 🇷🇸 (1-0, 2-0)
Third Qualifying Round — League Path
- 🇳🇱 NEC 2-1 Olympiacos 🇬🇷 (0-0, 2-1 a.e.t.)
- 🇳🇴 Bodø/Glimt 6-5 Union Saint-Gilloise 🇧🇪 (3-3, 3-2 a.e.t.)
- 🇹🇷 Fenerbahçe 3-0 Sturm Graz 🇦🇹 (2-0, 1-0)
- 🇫🇷 Lyon 4-2 Sparta Prague 🇨🇿 (1-2, 3-0)
Bodø/Glimt needed 120 minutes and goals from Ole Blomberg, Jens Petter Hauge and Andreas Helmersen to see off Union Saint-Gilloise 6-5 on aggregate after a 3-3 first leg. Red Star Belgrade, seeded and at home, lost 2-0 and went out 3-0 to Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Sabah overturned a 2-1 first-leg deficit with a 4-0 win over AGF.
The Play-off Round: Who Plays Whom
Seven ties, fourteen clubs, seven Champions League league-phase places. The losers do not go home - they drop into the Europa League league phase. Dates and each club's five-year coefficient are shown alongside.
- 🇹🇷 Fenerbahçe v Lyon 🇫🇷 · 18.08 / 26.08 · 78.75 v 65.75
- 🇳🇱 NEC v Bodø/Glimt 🇳🇴 · 19.08 / 25.08 · 13.59 v 96.5
- 🇧🇬 Levski Sofia v AEK Athens 🇬🇷 · 18.08 / 26.08 · 10 v 30.5
- 🏴 Celtic v LASK 🇦🇹 · 19.08 / 25.08 · 51.5 v 25.5
- 🇭🇷 Dinamo Zagreb v Viking 🇳🇴 · 18.08 / 26.08 · 68.5 v 6
- 🇸🇰 Slovan Bratislava v Celje 🇸🇮 · 19.08 / 26.08 · 57 v 40.5
- 🇮🇱 Hapoel Be'er Sheva v Sabah 🇦🇿 · 19.08 / 25.08 · 20 v 6.5
Fenerbahçe v Lyon
The pick of the bracket. Fenerbahçe beat Sturm Graz 3-0 on aggregate - Talisca and Greenwood in Istanbul, Talisca again from the spot in Graz - while Lyon lost the first leg 2-1 in Prague before winning 3-0 at home through Nuamah, Maitland-Niles and Morton. On coefficient it is close: Fenerbahçe 78.75, Lyon 65.75. The winner goes into the Champions League league phase as a Pot 3 club. The loser drops into the Europa League, where that same coefficient would make them one of the strongest seeds in the competition.
What It Did to the Pots
Champions League Pot 1 was already mathematically locked before a ball was kicked, and nothing on Tuesday changed that. What did change is the tier below. Olympiacos, on 76.75, would have been a Pot 3 club had they survived; they are gone, and NEC arrive in their place on a floored 13.59. Bodø/Glimt are still alive on 96.5 - higher than Sporting CP, Club Brugge, PSV or Aston Villa - and remain the one qualifier who would land in Pot 2 and push a seeded club down. Every play-off loser also drops into the Europa League league phase, which is where the Europa League pots will finally start filling up.
Where the Eliminated Clubs Landed
Losing a Champions League qualifier does not end a club's European season. All six beaten sides from the Champions Path drop straight into the Europa League play-off round, which is played on 20 and 27 August.
- 🇷🇸 Red Star Belgrade v Viktoria Plzeň 🇨🇿 · 20.08 / 27.08
- 🇰🇿 Kairat · 20.08 / 27.08
- 🇸🇪 Mjällby AIF · 20.08 / 27.08
- 🇱🇹 Kauno Žalgiris · 20.08 / 27.08
- 🇩🇰 AGF · 20.08 / 27.08
- 🇦🇲 Ararat-Armenia · 20.08 / 27.08
Europa League and Conference League Are Still Running
Only three of Tuesday's thirteen matches were outside the Champions League, and both of those competitions still have third-round ties to finish - the bulk of the Europa League second legs are played on 13 August. Tuesday's results outside the Champions League:
- 🇬🇷 Panathinaikos 3-2 CSKA 1948 🇧🇬 (1-1, 2-1 a.e.t.) · UECL
- 🇳🇴 Brann 4-3 Apollon Limassol 🇨🇾 (0-1, 4-2 a.e.t.) · UECL
- 🇬🇪 Iberia 1999 2-1 Larne 🏴 (0-0, 2-1 a.e.t.) · UEL
Results as of 12 August 2026, after all thirteen second legs of 11 August were completed. Scores, scorers and aggregates follow UEFA's official match reports as compiled on the 2026-27 qualifying pages; club coefficients are the five-year totals for the 2021-22 to 2025-26 window - the figures the 2026/27 draws are seeded on - from this site's own coefficient database, with the 20% association floor applied to clubs without a recent European record. The Champions League league-phase draw is on 27 August, the Europa League and Conference League draws on 28 August.