TURIN - Juventus eased through to the Champions League group stages after a 1-1 draw at Artmedia Bratislava completed a 5-1 aggregate victory.
Juve, out of Europe for two seasons following their involvement in an Italian match-fixing scandal, named a relatively strong team despite winning the third qualifying round first leg 4-0.
Claudio Ranieri’s side went behind when Artmedia midfielder Branislav Fodrek netted with a stunning bicycle kick after 14 minutes but they were soon level as Amauri scored his first competitive goal for the club.
The Brazilian-born striker, a close-season signing from Palermo, hung in the air before powering home a header from Czech winger Pavel Nedved’s cross on 25 minutes.
Amauri had earlier hit the post with a header and could easily have bagged a hat-trick.
Slovakian champions Artmedia, who reached the Champions League group stages in 2005, showed much more ambition than they did in the first leg but Juve’s aggregate win was never in doubt.
Juve’s last Champions League appearance was a quarter-final defeat by Arsenal two years ago after which they were stripped of their 2006 Italian title, banned from Europe and demoted to Serie B.
The twice European champions, who visit Fiorentina on Sunday in their Serie A opener, will be looking forward to Thursday’s Champions League group stage draw after finishing third last term in their first season back in the Italian top flight.
Barcelona made it safely through despite losing 1-0 at Wisla Krakow.
The Spanish giants went into their second leg on the back of a 4-0 first leg win over the Polish champions and qualified 4-1 on aggregate.
The two-time European champions were missing Lionel Messi, the Olympic gold medalist with Argentina, but welcomed back Daniel Alves from injury.
Wisla’s Brazilian centre-back Cleber scored the only goal of the encounter in the 52nd minute, but it wasn’t enough to turn around their gaping first leg deficit.
Having ensured their participation in the Champions League proper two months later than they would have originally hoped, the Catalan club can now concentrate on their opening league game against Numancia at the weekend.
Barcelona, who have gone two seasons without a trophy, had met Wisla in the third qualifying round seven years ago, winning 4-3 away and 1-0 at home.
Despite going through to the group stages their visit ended on a low note with an injury time booking for France international striker Thierry Henry.
An injury-time goal by new signing Rodrigo Souza gave Panathinaiko s a 1-0 win over Sparta Prague and their own place in the group stages.
The Greek side went into the game leading 2-1 from the first match and looked content to play for a draw.
Dimitris Salpigidis missed a good chance to put the tie beyond Sparta midway through the second half when he overran a back pass.
The Czechs then wasted two gilt-edged chances.
Mario Galinovic fumbled a long-range shot but Libor Dosek could only poke the rebound wide and Miroslav Slepicka also scuffed a shot wide from inside the penalty area.
Panathinaikos secured victory when Gabriel Rodrigues dos Santos floated over a cross
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