Wednesday night playoffs saw the final five teams joining 27 teams from Europe in the elite competition. The five teams that joined were Olympiacos FC, APOEL FC, Arsenal FC, VfB Stuttgartt and ACF Fiorentina. The first match saw Greek giants Olympiacos FC visiting Moldovian club FC Sheriff with a two goal advantage from the first leg. The Greeks looked comfortable throughout the match and were awarded with a goal in the 82nd minute. Kostas Mitroglou scored the only goal of the match and the match ended 0-1 to the Greek visitors. Olympiacos FC won the playoffs with a 3-0 aggregate score and qualified for the group stage of the Champions League.
In London, at the Emirates stadium, Scottish side Celtic had to score at least three goals to qualify for the group stage. Their hopes of qualifying were tarnished when Spanish referee Manuel Mejuto González awarded a penalty to the visitors when Eduardo dived in the penalty area. Television replays clearly showed that the Celtic keeper Artur Boruc had made no contact with Eduardo and he had dived unnecessarily. Eduardo converted the penalty and at half time the score was 1-0.
Eight minutes into the second half Eboue scored another one for Arsenal. Nothing was heading Celtic’s way and soon Arshavin scored the third of the night for Arsenal in the 74th minute. The night was looking gloomy for Celtic but they got a consolation goal in the injury period. Massimo Donati scored a stunner from nowhere with a cross from Andreas Hinkel.