KRAKOW/MANCHESTER, Aug 10 (SW) – Polish outfit Wisla Krakow and EPL giants Manchester United look set to advance to the Champions League group stages, after collecting comfortable wins over Panathinaikos and Debrecen.

Emmanuel Olisadebe had handed an early scare to the Polish hosts and their fans after breaking the deadlock and firing Panathinaikos into the lead just five minutes into the first half, but three consecutive efforts from Pawel Brozek (12’), Kalu Uche (52’) and Tomasz Frankowski (70’) handed Wisla a comfortable 3-1 win on the night.

Meanwhile, it did not take long to Manchester United to have the upper hand on Hungarian side Debrecen, England international Wayne Rooney showing all his opportunism with a low right-foot shot early in the game (7’) but the hosts remained unable to increase their goal margin before the interval.

19 seconds is all it took Debrecen to equalize after the break as Peter Halmosi won his challenge against Gary Neville before beating van der Sar, but ref of the day Luis Medina Cantalejo decided otherwise by generously awarding United a free-kick after spotting a foul on the England international. It went Manchester’s way from there as Ruud van Nistelrooy (49’) and Ronaldo (63’), perfectly served by a hard-working Rooney, sealed their side’s 3-0 win.

In the other games of this CL third qualifying round, Everton were left stunned by Villarreal after the Spaniards collected a promising 1-2 win away to Goodison Park, while Monaco suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat away to Betis, thanks to Edu’s late show (90’).

Rangers earned a 1-2 win away to Cyprus outfit Anorthosis, while Norwegian side Valerenga also defeated Club Brugge by a one goal margin, Steffen Iversen scoring the only goal of the game 10 minutes after the interval.