[UEL] Italian trio ease into group stage

Genoa, Lazio and Roma have booked their safe passages to the UEFA Europa League group stage after completing the qualifying job in tonight's play-off round second leg matches.

Roma went into the second leg of their meeting with Kosice locked at 3-3 from the first leg, but roared into a 5-0 lead at the Stadio Olimpico after just 18 minutes and eventually cruised through 10-4 on aggregate, with Francesco Totti scoring a hat-trick.

City rivals Lazio could afford a 1-0 away defeat to Elfsborg, with the Biancocelesti effectively having wrapped up the tie with a 3-0 first-leg win, while Genoa had a comfortable 3-1 lead over Odense and a 1-1 draw away from home helped the Grifoni progress without alarm.

Following last weeks draw in Slovakia, Roma knew they could not afford to make any mistakes in front of their own fans and they started in blistering form.

A quick fire double from Totti got Luciano Spalletti's side on their way, while Stefano Guberti made it comfortable as he added a third inside the first eight minutes.

Alessio Cerci and Jeremy Menez scored within a minute of each other to give the Giallorossi a stunning 5-0 lead inside 18 minutes.

Jan Novak did pull one back before the interval for the hapless visitors but Roma completed the rout in the second half with late goals from John Arne Riise and Totti, who recorded his second hat-trick of the competition.

Lazio took a commanding 3-0 lead to Elfsborg and despite a narrow 1-0 defeat, Davide Ballardini's side were comfortable in Sweden.

Denni Avdic scored for the hosts but the goal, scored with 20 minutes remaining, proved to be only a consolation for the tie overall. However, Lazio will now be without the suspended Aleksandar Kolarov after he was sent off late on.

Genoa secured their progression to the group stage with a 1-1 draw away to Danish outfit Odense.

In a balanced encounter, Gian Piero Gasperini's side fell behind to an own goal from first-leg hero Luciano Figueroa on the stroke of half time. But Domenico Criscito levelled for the visitors eight minutes into the second half, ending any chances of a comeback from the home side.

The Italian trio join 35 other play-off winners, along with the 10 UEFA Champions League play-off losers, for Friday's group stage draw.

Roma are amongst the top seeds for the draw, while Lazio are in the second pot and Genoa in the fourth.

UEFA Europa League 2009-10
Play-off Round, Second Leg
Thursday 27 August
AEK Athens 3-0 Vaslui (Agg: 4-2)
Aktobe 0-2 Werder Bremen (Agg: 3-8)
Amkar Perm 1-0 Fulham (Agg: 2-3)
Aston Villa 2-1 Rapid Vienna (Agg: 2-2ag)
Austria Vienna 3-2 Metallurg Donetsk AET (Agg: 5-4)
Basle 5-1 Baku (Agg: 8-2)
Club Brugge 1-0 Lech Poznan AET (Agg: 1-1, Pens: 4-3)
Cluj 2-1 Sarajevo (Agg: 3-2)
Crvena Zvezda 2-1 Slavia Prague (Agg: 2-4)
Dinamo Moscow 1-2 CSKA Sofia (Agg: 1-2)
Elfsborg 1-0 Lazio (Agg: 1-3)
Fenerbahce 2-2 Sion (Agg: 4-2)
Levadia Tallinn 1-1 Galatasaray (Agg: 1-6)
Metalist Kharkiv 0-1 Sturm Graz (Agg: 1-2)
Hamburg 3-1 Guingamp (Agg: 8-2)
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1-1 Teplice (Agg: 3-2)
Hearts 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Agg: 2-4)
Heerenveen 0-0 PAOK Salonika (Agg: ag1-1)
Hertha Berlin 3-1 Brondby (Agg: 4-3)
Lille 4-2 Genk (Agg: 6-3)
Litex Lovech 0-4 BATE Borisov AET (Agg: 1-4)
MSK Zilina 0-2 Partizan Belgrade (Agg: 1-3)
Odense 1-1 Genoa (Agg: 2-4)
PSV Eindhoven 1-0 Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv (Agg: 2-0)
Qarabag 0-0 Twente (Agg: 1-3)
Roma 7-1 Kosice (Agg: 10-4)
Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 Sivasspor (Agg: 6-0)
Sigma Olomouc 1-1 Everton (Agg: 1-5)
Slovan Bratislava 1-2 Ajax (Agg: 1-7)
Slovan Liberec 0-3 Dinamo Bucharest AET (Agg: 3-3, Pens: 8-9)
Sparta Prague 1-0 Maribor (Agg: 3-0)
St. Patricks 1-2 Steaua Bucharest (Agg: 1-5)
Toulouse 0-1 Trabzonspor (Agg: 3-2)
Tromso 1-1 Athletic Bilbao (Agg: 3-4)
Valencia 4-1 Stabaek (Agg: 7-1)
Villarreal 6-1 NAC Breda (Agg: 9-2)
Vorskla Poltava 2-1 Benfica (Agg: 2-5)
Zenit St. Petersburg 1-1 Nacional (Agg: 4-5)

UEFA Europa League 2009-10
Group Stage Draw
Friday 28 August, 1145 (UK time)
> The 48 clubs are split into four seeding pots, with one from each to be drawn into the 12 groups, though no team can meet another from the same nation.
> Matchday 1 takes place on 17 September, with fixtures continuing on 1 and 22 October, 5 November, 2/3, and 16/17 December.
> The top two sides from each section will progress to the Round of 32, where they will be joined by the eight teams which finish third in their UEFA Champions League group.

Pot 1: Shakhtar Donetsk, Werder Bremen, Villarreal, Roma, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Hamburg, Benfica, Valencia, Panathinaikos, Ajax, Steaua Bucharest.
Pot 2: Fenerbahce, Basle, Lille, Celtic, Everton, Club Brugge, Heerenveen, Galatasaray, Anderlecht, Austria Vienna, Copenhagen, Lazio.
Pot 3: Hertha Berlin, Sparta Prague, Dinamo Bucharest, AEK Athens, Slavia Prague, Levski Sofia, Athletic Bilbao, Partizan Belgrade, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Twente, Dinamo Zagreb, Fulham.
Pot 4: CSKA Sofia, Toulouse, Cluj, Genoa, Rapid Vienna, Timisoara, BATE Borisov, Nacional, Salzburg, Sturm Graz, Ventspils, Sheriff.

Source: UEFA