<
>

Southampton shocked by FC Midtjylland, Dortmund cruise past Odd

Southampton were sent crashing out of Europe on Thursday evening courtesy of a strike from FC Midtjylland's very own "Big Dunc."

Former Celtic striker Morten Rasmussen was given the nickname 'Duncan' during his early years with AGF Aarhus as he reminded a coach of former Everton forward Duncan Ferguson with the Denmark international even sporting the moniker on the back of his shirt.

And he provided the moment of inspiration to send the Danish champions into the Europa League group stages, with Ronald Koeman's Southampton losing 1-0 on the night and falling at the final hurdle of qualification.

Having made heavy weather of a first-leg draw at St Mary's a week ago, Southampton were unable to get on the scoresheet at the soaked MCH Arena in Herning and will now go back to focusing on the stuttering start they have made to their domestic campaign.

Marco Reus had hat trick and Shinji Kagawa a brace as Borussia Dortmund crushed Odd 7-2 in their Europa League qualifier second leg.

Ole Jorgen Halvorsen gave Odd an early 1-0 lead right before the 20-minute mark, but Dortmund stormed back with six unanswered goals starting with a Henrikh Mkhitaryan strike in the 25th minute.

Reus added two of his three -- one in the 27th and one in the 31st -- to effectively end the match with 60 minutes left to play.

Odd surprised Thomas Tuchel's men in the first leg taking an early 3-0 lead in Norway, but Dortmund responded and won that match by a 4-3 final.

The 11-5 aggregate win puts Dortmund into the Europa League group stage.

A 76th minute away goal from Enzo Crivelli proved crucial as Bordeaux lost 2-1 to Kairat Almaty but advanced to the group stage by a final aggregate score of 2-2.

The hosts took an early 1-0 lead after an own goal from Cedric Yambere and were poised to win the tie after Islambek Kuat doubled the lead in the 66th minute. But Crivelli, who came on for Diego Rolan in the 69th minute, gave the Ligue 1 side the win.

Ajax and Jablonec played to a 0-0 draw, but the Dutch side advanced by a 1-0 aggregate final after they won their home leg last week.

The Czech club will rue their missed opportunity to draw level after Ajax went down to 10 men when Riechedly Bazoer was sent off in the 59th minute for his second yellow card.

Athletic Bilbao found the goal they needed and hung on to win 1-0 and advance past Zilina on away goals.

Gorka Elustondo scored his first goal for the club by collecting a loose ball and scoring from outside the box to give his team a 24th-minute advantage.

The Spanish club went on to control much of the action to reach the group stage with a 3-3 aggregate score.

Despite losing 3-1 on the night, Norweigan club Molde eliminated Belgian giants Standard Liege on away goals.

Etzaz Hussain's scored Molde's crucial goal after Anthony Knockaert's opener for the hosts, and second-half strikes from Ivan Santini and Adrien Trebel left Standard Liege one goal short from advancing.

Fernandao recorded a brace as Fenerbahce cruised past Atromitos 3-0 to advance 4-0 on aggregate.

The Brazilian striker put the Turkish giants on their way with a seventh-minute goal, and an Andrey Gorbunov own goal wrapped up the tie even before Fernandao added his second in the 78th minute.

AZ Alkmaar scored two late goals to erase a first-leg deficit and defeat FC Astra 2-0, advancing 4-3 on aggregate.

Trailing after losing the first leg 3-2, AZ finally found a goal in the 80th minute through Jop van der Linden that was enough to put the Dutch side through on away goals, and Robert Muehren's goal five minutes later sealed the victory.

A 36th minute strike from Carlos Eduardo was all Rubin Kazan needed to beat Rabotnicki 1-0, and 2-1 on aggregate.

Ligue 1 club St Etienne held on for a 1-0 win over Moldovan club Milsami.

Benjamin Corgnet provided the scoring for Christophe Galtier's men as they earned a 2-1 aggregate win.

The Europa League group stage draw takes place Friday in Monaco. The 22 playoff qualifier winners are joined in the selection by the 10 teams -- APOEL, Basel, Celtic, Club Brugge, Lazio, Monaco, Partizan Belgrade, Rapid Vienna, Skenderbeu, Sporting Lisbon -- who lost their Champions League playoff qualifiers and the 16 teams who automatically qualified for the group stage.