Hamburg - Two goals from Claudio Pizarro helped Werder Bremen to a 2-0 victory over Kazachstan's Aktobe in the Europa League Thursday to book the Bundesliga club's place in the tournament group stages. English Premier League side Fulham also secured their place in the group stages despite going down 1-0 to Russian side Amkar Perm.
The German Cup holders held a 6-3 lead from the first leg and despite missing striker Hugo Almeida and defender Sebastian Proedl through injury cruised to a comfortable 8-3 aggregate win thanks to the Peruvian's strikes after 10 and 45 minutes.
Although the home side started strongly, winning four corners in the opening three minutes, Bremen drew first blood on 10 minutes when Pizarro headed home a corner from Mesut Ozil.
Aktobe's hopes of a comeback took another blow on 35 minutes when Emil Kenzhisariev was sent off for a second bookable offence and 10 minutes later Pizarro made it 2-0 for last year's losing UEFA Cup finalists, tapping in from close range.
"The goal to put us in front was important," said Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf. "It was a positive experience for us and took away hope from Aktobe."
Fulham suffered a serious scare against Perm before prevailing 3-2 on aggregate after being outplayed by the home side for most of the match.
However, Perm had to wait until the last minute to get on the scoresheet through a header from captain Martin Kushev although they almost won the tie on away goals when Nikolai Zhilyaev fired over in the final seconds.
In other action, Twente Enschede progress 3-1 on aggregate after a 0-0 draw with FK Karabakh.
Later Thursday, SV Hamburg, the Spanish duo Valencia and Villareal, Italians Lazio, Ajax Amsterdam and Premier League side Everton are among the sides looking to book their place in Friday's draw in Monaco for the group stages.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa, Hertha Berlin and 2008 UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg need to overturn deficits if they are to progress.
UEFA Cup title-holders Shakhtar Donetsk made sure of their advance with a comfortable win over Turkey's Sivasspor on Tuesday.
The winners of the 38 play-off-round matches will be joined by the 10 losing teams from the Champions League play-off round to make up the 48 clubs in the group stage which which begins on September 17.
