Bayer Leverkusen beat Dynamo Kiev 3-0 on Wednesday to reach the second round of the Champions League.
Defender Juan opened the scoring for Leverkusen in the 51st minute and Andrei Voronin, a striker who tormented the visitors from his native country all evening, notched the second in the 77th. Mirko Babic secured the victory in 86th.
Leverkusen won Group B with 11 points, ahead of Real Madrid, which beat AS Roma 3-0, to advance. Madrid also collected 11 points but Leverkusen had a better head-to-head record.
Dynamo, which came into the final rotation leading the group with 10 points and only needed a draw to qualify, ended up third and will now go to the UEFA Cup.
It meant all three German clubs advanced, with Leverkusen joining Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen. The last time three Bundesliga teams reached the second round of the Champions League was seven years ago.
Voronin had the first shot on goal after six minutes but the ball went wide of Olexandr Shovkovskiy’s goal.
A deflected free kick by Robson Ponte troubled Shovkovskiy in the 12th. He fumbled the ball but kicked it away before Leverkusen forwards could pounce on it.
Denis Berbatov’s selfishness saved Dynamo at the half hour.
Voronin fed his striker partner with a through ball, then got himself free on the other side and expected the ball back. But Berbatov chose to shoot himself and sent the ball high.
With Dynamo beginning to threaten, Kleber had the ball stripped away by Leverkusen defender Roque Junior at the last moment.
Kleber toyed with the Leverkusen defence at the start of the second half but his shot was deflected.
Six minutes into the second half, Leverkusen won a corner and Juan rose to meet Voronin’s cross at the far post to head past Shovkovskiy, who left his line but didn’t go far enough to bother the defender.
Five minutes later, Voronin struck the post with a left-foot shot from the edge of the area.
In the 57th, Berbatov beat an offside trap to emerge alone in front of Shovkovskiy. He rounded the Ukrainian goalkeeper and then missed the empty net.
On the other side, defender Goran Sablic struck a header into the ground and over the goal.
With Dynamo finally applying more pressure, Maris Verpakovskis nearly drilled the ball under the bar but Joerg Butt stretched to tip the ball over. From the resulting corner, Oleh Gusev got a shot at the goal but Bernd Schneider cleared off the line.
Gusev missed another effort in the 72nd, just before being substituted by Florin Cernat.
After protecting his goal, Schneider set up the second for Leverkusen. The German international shook off defender Serhiy Fedorov with a clever dribble and fed the unmarked Voronin, who tapped the ball in easily. Voronin has eight goals in the last nine games for Leverkusen.
Babic put the issue beyond doubt when he fired from the edge of the area with four minutes left in regulation time and Shovkovskiy allowed the ball to slip under his body into the net. – Sapa-AP