By DPA
Hamburg : Last season’s finalists Liverpool, Italian side Lazio and Scottish giants Glasgow Rangers advanced to the group stage of the UEFA Champions League football after aggregate victories in the third qualifying round.
Liverpool moved smoothly into the lucrative 32-team league Tuesday night with two goals from Dirk Kuyt and one apiece from Peter Crouch and Sami Hyypia earning them a 4-0 victory at home in Anfield over Toulouse to follow up the 1-0 win in France two weeks ago.
Crouch struck from close range in the 19th minute when he got on the end of a cross by Kuyt, and Hyypia headed in the second in the 48th from a corner by Yossi Benayoun.
Kuyt rounded off a comfortable night for the Premiership side by rifling in two right-foot shots into the net in the last three minutes.
Visiting Lazio, meanwhile, came from behind at the break to defeat Dinamo Bucharest 3-1 for a 4-2 aggregate victory.
After Florin Bratu had put Dinamo ahead in the 27th minute, Tommaso Rocchi equalised from the penalty spot two minutes after half time before Goran Pandev in the 54th and Rocchi again in the 66th gave the Italians victory.
Glasgow Rangers progressed after a scoreless draw at Red Star Belgrade proved enough for the Scottish side, who had beaten the Serbian champions at home 1-0 in the first leg.
Sevilla’s match at AEK Athens was postponed until Monday after the Spanish club’s defender Antonio Puerta died earlier in the day following a heart attack in his side’s 4-1 win against Getafe Saturday.
Twelve other matches in the third qualifying round are being played Wednesday night. The 16 qualifiers join the 16 seeded teams in the group-stage draw Thursday evening in Monaco.