Steve Bruce thrilled with Europa League progress

Steve Bruce has revealed that he is proud of his Hull City team for recovering from their "awful start" against Trencin to book their place in the Europa League playoffs.

Hull endured a nightmare start as their Slovakian counterparts bagged a crucial away goal after just two minutes at the KC Stadium to lead 1-0 on aggregate.

Ahmed Elmohamady equalised, before Sone Aluko struck the winner nine minutes from the end, and Bruce believes that his side deserved to progress on the balance of play.

"The first thing I said to them was make sure you concentrate," he told Sky Sports News.

"We've made a mistake and we've got off to an awful start and for the first 20 minutes everyone was on edge.

"Thankfully, in the end we stuck with it and got the winner, which I think overall we deserved, we had some great chances and at this level you have to take them."

The draw for the fourth and final qualifying round takes place tomorrow at 12pm.