21 Oct 2011

Wood earns Birmingham Europa win

3:11 pm on 21 October 2011

All Whites striker Chris Wood has scored a last-minute winner for his English Championship football side Birmingham City in their Europa League tie at Belgium side Bruges.

The young New Zealand forward secured the 2-1 win in the 10th minute of injury time to bolster Birmingham's hopes of winning their group.

Wood's a loan signing from Premiership side West Bromwich Albion and he struck with seconds left on the clock to make it two wins out of three for Chris Hughton's side as they went level on top of Group H with their beaten rivals.

The added time followed treatment for Blues defender Pablo Ibanez, who was earlier knocked unconscious in a collision.

Group rivals Sporting Braga and Maribor parted 1-1 to leave Birmingham and Bruges both two points clear of the third-placed Slovenians.

Elsewhere, Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko was on target as Tottenham Hotspur edged out Rubin Kazan 1-0 to go top of Group A at their rivals' expense by three points.

Stoke City are in command of Group E after sweeping aside Maccabi Tel Aviv 3-0 despite the sending-off of Cameron Jerome at the Britannia Stadium.

Fulham were unable to emulate Birmingham's away day success as the Cottagers crashed 1-0 on their Group K travels at Wisla Krakow of Poland with Israeli Dudu Biton netting the only goal.

Dutch outfit Twente won 4-1 at Denmark's Odense to establish a three-point lead at the top of the group but Fulham hang onto second spot after Odense's loss which gave Krakow their first points.

Scottish giants Celtic, European Cup winners in 1967, were held 1-1 at French side Rennes.

Udinese scored twice late on in Italy to see off Spaniards Atletico Madrid to go top of the group and leave their rivals just two points clear of the stragglers.

Group J leaders Schalke swamped Cypriot side AEK Larnaca 5-0 away while Maccabi Haifa inflicted the same scoreline on former European champions Steaua Bucharest.