Champions League return for Bodø/Glimt joined by debut for Azerbaijan's Sabah after playoffs wins

GENEVA (AP) — The Champions League's feel-good story Bodø/Glimt will be back for a second season and Sabah of Azerbaijan will debut just nine years after being formed.

Bodø/Glimt eased through the second leg of its qualifying playoff Tuesday against NEC Nijmegen and Sabah denied Hapoel Beer-Sheva in extra time after a last-gasp goal in regulation time to level the aggregate score.

Celtic and LASK were in extra time tied at 4-4 on aggregate after the Austrian champion stunningly fought back from a four-goal deficit with a stoppage time leveler.

Four more playoff second-leg games Wednesday will confirm the final entries in the 36-team main phase. The draw for those games is made Thursday in Monaco.

Bodø/Glimt's storied series of wins in January and February against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan make the Norwegian fishing town team seem like a Champions League veteran compared to Sabah.

On Tuesday, Dutch newcomer NEC lost 3-0 as the latest visitor to the Arctic Circle suffering on the artificial turf inside Glimt's tiny Aspmyra Stadium. The aggregate score was 6-1.

Any hope of a comeback effectively ended after three minutes when NEC goalkeeper Gonzalo Crettaz handled the ball outside his penalty area and was sent off.

Sabah was created in 2017 and exactly nine years later will debut in the Champions League's main competition after a dramatic qualifying playoffs win.

Sabah was just seconds from elimination against the Israeli champion, which won the first leg 2-1 last week, when substitute Tellur Mutallimov scored in the last minute of stoppage time to force extra time.

Sabah's Gabon striker Orphe Mbina then scored with a header in the 101st minute and Joy-Lance Mickels added on in the 115th to make it 5-2 in the second leg and 6-4 on aggregate score.

Hapoel Beer-Sheva finished with nine players in a hard-luck loss after having led 4-2 on aggregate in the 61st when Israel national team right-back Guy Mizrahi scored with a shot from outside the penalty area.

Defender Djibril Diop and midfielder Eliel Peretz both were shown second yellow cards in extra time.

No Israeli team has played in the main Champions League since November 2022, when Maccabi Haifa finished last in a group with Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

Sabah will join Italy's Como as Champions League newcomers in the 36-team main phase draw Thursday.

UEFA will make the draw in Monaco to give each team eight opponents playing from Sept. 8 through Jan. 27.

The 11 Premier League teams not involved in UEFA competitions this season started in the English League Cup second round that began Tuesday.

Leeds won at Nottingham Forest for the second time in four days, adding a 2-0 win Tuesday to the 1-0 victory in their opening league game Saturday.

Four years ago, Ipswich beating Leicester 3-1 would have been an upset by a third-tier team hosting one from the Premier League. Their status is now reversed after back-to-back relegations for Leicester, the historic champion of England in 2016.

Ipswich's Chile midfielder Marcelino Núñez scored twice late in the second half to seal the win.

Brentford cruised to a 6-1 victory at second-tier Birmingham, backing up its impressive 3-0 win over Tottenham in its Premier League opener.

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