Sports Thread #1 For 8/24/10: Brave Bermen Comes Back While Brilliant Braga Thumps Sevilla In The Champs League Playoffs

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It was a wild first night of second Leg drama in the 2010-11 edition of the Champions League Playoffs tonight.

After falling behind two great Giampolo Pazzini goals and Antonio Cassano's 85th minute effort, Werder Bermen made a spirited and memorable comeback to advance to the group stage 5-4 on aggregate over Sampdoria in a 3-2 result to the Italians.

It was a comeback spurred by sub Markus Rosenberg's "save the day" effort with two minutes left in stoppage time, disheartening the fans of the Italian side who thought their ticket into the Last 32 was secured. And then, a fine build up by the terrific youngster Marko Marin led to veteran goal striker Claudio Pizarro to smash home a fine drive pass Gianluca Curci to leave the Bundesliga outfit in full glee, while the "Serie A" side left to pick up their pieces towards the Europa League.

In another dramatic tie, FK Partizan advanced 3-2 on penalties pass Anderlect after both sides repeated their 2-2 scoreline last week in Belgrade. Heartbreak for the Belgian powerhouses, as their pitch cost them dearly in the shootout and lead to Partizan returning to the group stage for the first time in seven long years.

Israel gets their third team in the Champions League group stage as Hapoel Tel-Aviv prevail over FC Salzburg 4-3 on aggregate . The 3-2 road victory for Hapoel last week was too much for Austrian side to overcome in a 1-1 result.

Basel made Sheriff want to change their club names to Deputees with a dominate 3-0 road win to advance 4-0 on final aggregate.

But the performance of the playoffs trust far over those terrific games was Sporting Braga going into Sevilla and thumping La Liga powerhouse 4-3 and advancing 5-3 on aggregate. Brazilian Lima scored an impressive hat trick to give the Portuguese side passage into the group stage for the first time.

There will be more drama in store left in these eight figure lucrative matches tomorrow, as the 2nd night of the Champions League Playoff return legs will give us all the participants in the group stages.