Schwarzer Holds His Euro Nerve

as seen on au.fourfourtwo.com

Australian stopper Mark Schwarzer was put under plenty of late pressure but held his nerve to help Fulham go through despite a 1-0 loss to Amkar Perm in Russia in Thursday night's Europa League action.

Schwarzer's Fulham defeated Amkar Perm 3-2 on aggregate over the two legs but it wasn't easy on the long journey to Russia.

The Socceroos star had to be alert on 28 minutes when Carlos drove forward and fired a good shot in, which Schwarzer athletically pushed away.

But after withstanding Amkar's best efforts, Fulham conceded with 5 minutes to go when Martin Kushev converted Georgi Peev's cross.

Amkar had a late chance but fired over as Fulham held onto a place in the Europa League group phase.

Elsewhere, another Australian goalkeeper Ante Covic, had a less successful night as his Swedish club IF Elfsborg was knocked out of the continental tournament despite defeating Lazio 1-0 on the night.

Elfsborg lost 3-1 on aggregate to the Italian club, who had a first-half effort crash into Covic's crossbar before the Australian made a fine close-range save to deny Tommaso Rocchi.

The Swedish club put plenty of pressure on Lazio's goal but too many chances were wasted and it wasn't until 70 minutes in they made the breakthrough courtesy of Denni Avdic's header.

Socceroo Luke Wilkshire was also eliminated from continental football after his Russian club Dinamo Moscow lost at home in European competition again, going down 2-1 to Bulgarians CSKA Sofia.

Dinamo took the lead early, with Wilkshire playing a part in the move with a classy flick-on allowing Kirill Kombarov space on the right-wing and he measured his cross for Aleksandr Kerzhakov to power home from close-range.

But CSKA hit back 4 minutes later through Spas Delev's stooping header before Ivan Ivanov grabbed the winner in the second-half for the visitors.

Elsewhere in Thursday night's Europa League action, Scott Chipperfield played a full game but wasn't amongst the goals as FC Basel thrashed FK Baku 5-1 to win 8-2 on aggregate.

Australian-Irishman Shane Lowry made another appearance off the bench for Aston Villa as they crashed out of the Europa League, despite a 2-1 home win over Rapid Vienna. Villa bow out on the away goals rule.

Tim Cahill's Everton drew 1-1 in the Czech Republic with Sigma Olomouc, with the Australian an unused substitute. The Toffees cruise through 5-1 on aggregate.

Harry Kewell was missing in action again for Galatasaray as they drew 1-1 with Levadia Tallinn in Estonia, to ease through with a 6-1 aggregate triumph.

Nikita Rukavytsya was absent for FC Twente as they drew 0-0 with FK Qarabaq to complete a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Ryan McGowan and Matthew Park were not in the Hearts squad which defeated Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb 2-0, but the Scottish club lost the tie 4-2 on aggregate.