While AEK were unable to overturn their 3-1 deficit against Viktoria Plzen, Apollon managed to book their place in the Europa League group stages with a heroic 1-1 draw away at FC Midtjylland.
First up on the night were AEK, who started very brightly in Larnaca against a tough Plzen side as they went in pursuit of a morale-boosting early goal.
Florian Taulemesse’s clever overhead pass looped over the defence to find Joan Tomas who then intended to pick out Ivan Trickovski but it was just out of the reach of the winger who leapt at full stretch.
Veteran defender David Catala then leapt highest of all from a corner and his header needed to be tipped wide by Ales Hruska in the Plzen goal.
Florian, who has been golden for AEK all throughout qualifying, wriggled away from his man and swung a left foot towards goal but the keeper spread himself well to send the ball out for a corner.
AEK’s insistence carried on in the second half but the hosts were visibly tired after giving so much early on in the game.
Time ticked on and with ten minutes left on the clock it was evident that it was not going to be their night as Hector Hemel hit a sweet strike from all of 30 yards which struck the inside of the post and out.
It was a good performance and a commendable European campaign but the dream of reaching the groups will have to wait for at least one more season.
It was a different proposition for Apollon who went to Denmark with a 3-2 lead from last week’s first leg to protect
Though that quickly disappeared when Alexander Sorloth embarked on a solo run before setting up Rilwan Hassan who calmly slotted into the corner to turn the tie on its head.
Jonas Borring was then picked out with a smartly-worked corner routine and his bullet header was flying towards goal, but Bruno Vale was equal to it with an excellent save.
Midtjylland went from unlucky to lucky within seconds as they first had a strong penalty shout turned down, but Sorloth was then