Atl Madrid 2-0 Panathinaikos

Atletico Madrid secured their spot in the Champions League group stage with a 2-0 win over 10-man Panathinaikos.

Leading 3-2 from the first leg in Athens, Atletico needed just five minutes to further strengthen their stranglehold on the tie when Panathinaikos defender Loukas Vintra put through his own net.

That was a huge setback for the Greek side and their hopes of staging an unlikely fightback suffered a further blow midway through the second half when striker Djibril Cisse was sent off.

The Greek side in fact created some of their best openings when they were down to 10 men, but Sergio Aguero's goal seven minutes from time ensured there were no late scares for the Spanish side.

Panathinaikos came into the match needing to make history if they were to get through to the group stage, having never before beaten a Spanish club on their own patch, losing nine of 10 matches.

And the chances of breaking that run looked even more remote when Vintra put through his own net soon after kick-off.

A deep cross from John Heitinga picked out Diego Forlan running in towards the far post, and although the Uruguayan failed to direct his volley goalwards, the ball still ended up in the net as Vintra sliced his attempted clearance past Mario Galinovic.

Henk Ten Cate's side could hardly have had a worse start, but they tried to mount a response and Sebastian Leto and Cisse both had efforts on goal, although neither really tested Atletico custodian Sergio Asenjo.

Aside from those chances, it was largely Atletico making the running in front of their own fans at the Vicente Calderon and Antonio Lopez curled a free-kick just wide before Forlan saw his header saved by Galinovic.

That Forlan chance was in the 70th minute, and 60 seconds later Pana found themselves a man down as Cisse was dismissed following a challenge on Paulo Assuncao.

With a man less and needing three goals to go through, Pana's hopes had all but vanished, but the visitors battled on and Leto brought a good save out of Asenjo and Jose Sarriegi headed wide.

Atletico always looked capable of extending their lead, though, and Aguero duly did that after working himself a shooting chance and firing through the legs of Galinovic to seal the win.