Stoke City and Fulham marched into the Europa League play-offs on Thursday where they were joined by Hearts who brought a little relief to Scottish football after Rangers' disappointing midweek Champions League exit.
Ryan Shotton scored Stoke's only goal in injury time to beat Hajduk Split 1-0 for a 2-0 aggregate win over the Croatian side.
Stoke had already marked their first European tie in 37 years last week with a 1-0 win at the Britannia Stadium in the first leg.
Fulham, the 2010 runners-up, saw off RNK Split of Croatia 2-0 at Craven Cottage after a 0-0 stalemate in the first leg.
Andrew Johnson's header was the only goal of the first half before captain Danny Murphy added the second from the penalty spot after the interval.
New Hearts manager Paulo Sergio, who replaced Jim Jefferies two days ago, oversaw a 4-1 win over Hungary's Paks at Tynecastle for a 5-2 aggregate.
Ryan Stevenson score twice in 12 first-half minutes before Andrew Driver added the third after 50 minutes with Rudi Skacel putting away the fourth.
Elsewhere, Italy's Palermo drew 1-1 at Swiss side Thun but went out on the away goals rule after last week's 2-2 draw.
Pablo Gonzalez gave the Italians a 49th minute lead but Dario Lezcano levelled 15 minutes later to put the Swiss through to the play-offs.
The draw for the play-offs takes place on Friday at UEFA headquarters in Nyon.
Source: AFP
