Madrid, Aug 26 (IANS): Valencia returned to Champions League football tournament after three years and despite a 1-2 loss to Monaco in the second leg of the play-offs.
This means Spain will now have a record five teams in the Champions League group stages that apart from Valencia, includes Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla, reports Efe.
This is also the first time in the championship's history that one country will have five participating teams.
Earlier, during the match, the Nuno-managed team made good the advantage of its 3-1 win against Monaco in the first leg match with Alvaro Negredo striking early.
German Mustafi's attempt to give Valencia its first goal in the 2nd minute was thwarted by Subasic but the goalkeeper was unable to save an exquisite shot by Alvaro a couple of minutes later.
However, the return of the former two-time finalist to Europe's elite club tournament was not entirely smooth.
Valencia goalie Matthew Ryan failed to save a Andrea Raggi goal and a rebound by Elderson off his save from a deflected free kick just 15 minutes before close of play.
Basel's misery was even greater.
The team that reached the second round of the last Champions League, found itself edged out of the championship.
A 2-2 draw in the first leg play-off against Maccabi Tel-Aviv and a 1-1 draw in the second leg ensured the Israeli club a spot in group stage.
Basel's Luca Zuffi netted a goal in the 11th minute but it was undone by another by the Israeli Eran Zehavi, drawing the match.
Glasgow Celtic was once again left out of the championship despite an upper hand in the first leg play-off against Malmo that notched two goals in the second leg match, by the Swiss Markus Rosenberg and Uruguayan Felipe Carvalho, to seal its place in the league's group stage.
Dinamo Zagreb put an end to Skënderbeu's dreams of qualifying with a 4-1 win while Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk just about managed to edge out Rapid Wien squeezing a 2-2 draw after notching a 1-0 win in the first leg play-off.
The Champions league qualifiers list will be completed Wednesday after the following matches: Apoel Nicosia vs Astana, Partizan vs BATE Borisov, Bayer Leverkusen vs Lazio, Club Brugge vs Manchester United, CSKA Moscow vs Sporting.