Bundesliga clubs reach Europa League group stages

BERLIN, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Bundesliga clubs Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin all reached the group stages of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.

While Hamburg and Bremen secured comfortable wins, Berlin needed to rely on a fantastic effort by Gojko Kacar and three goals in the final 15 minutes.

With a 6-3 result against FK Aktobe from the first leg, Werder Bremen traveled to Kazakhstan in order to seal the deal of reaching the Europa League group stages in an easy-going fashion. And so they did, Pizarro netted the opener with just eleven minutes on the clock.

FK Aktobe defender Kenzhisariev was sent off when he conceded his second yellow card of the match, after only 37 minutes were played.

Pizarro's second strike in injury time meant Bremen were taking a comfortable 2-0 lead into half time. The score remained unchanged for the second 45 minutes and Bremen look forward to further international highlights.

Just like their northern rivals Bremen, Hamburger SV also took a comfortable lead from the first leg into the second encounter. 5-1 was the final score-line in Guingamp last week and with a 3-1 home victory they secured a place in the Europa League group stages.

Tesche opened the scoring in the 42nd minute. Berg doubled the lead just two minutes after the restart and Tesche scored his second of the evening only four minutes later. Mathis scored the 3-1 for Guingamp with just seconds left on the clock.

On Thursday evening, Hertha BSC Berlin was forced to fear elimination until deep into the second half. Morten Rasmussen had brought the visitors from Brondby IF in the lead five minutes after the restart in the second half. Having already lost the away leg with 2-1, Berlin knew they had their work cut out for them.

Gojko Kacar scored the equaliser in the 75th minute. Dardai's strike five minutes later at least secured Berlin extra time, but Kacar put an end to all of Berlin's worries with his second goal of the match in the 86th minute.