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Champions League play-off round, second leg

Athletic Bilbao 3 - Napoli 1

Athletic Bilbao will be in tomorrow afternoon’s Champions League draw after they beat Rafa Benítez’s Napoli 4-2 on aggregate! Aduríz, Gurpegi and Laporte all wasted good chances in the first half, and they appeared to have paid the price when Hamsik picked up Balenziaga’s headed clearance to beat Iraizoz just two minutes after the restart. However Aduríz levelled the tie on the hour mark, firing a deflected shot inside the far post following a Susaeta corner, and just eight minutes later the striker got in between Cabral and Albiol to pick up a long punt out of defence and run the ball in to an empty net. Soon afterwards the visiting defenders were caught napping again when Unai López played the ball forward, and whilst they were waiting for the referee to call Aduríz offside, Ibai Gómez cut in from the left to round Cabral and score the third. That just about settled it, and Aduríz could have had a hat-trick had he not put the easiest of chances over the top late on. (27.08.14)