Nikolic, Jovic Lead AEK Back to Champions League
AEK routed Levski 4-0 in the return leg, and a Luka Jovic goal plus Marko Nikolic's bench sent the Athens club back into the Champions League league phase after eight years.
In the AEK dressing room last night, there was no need for questions after the final whistle. Marko Nikolic walked out in front of the cameras with a smile he couldn’t wipe off his face, while behind him his players kept celebrating a night that put them back among Europe’s elite. It took them just seven minutes to open a gap that never closed.
The cross came in from the right, Luka Jovic rose above the Levski defense and headed it in for 1-0. It was a sign that AEK had no intention of playing it safe that night, even though the first leg in Sofia had ended goalless, 0-0. Five minutes later, Barnabas Varga doubled the lead, and the same player made it 3-0 in the 29th minute. By halftime, the outcome of the tie was effectively settled. Razvan Marin converted from the penalty spot in the 55th minute to make it a final 4-0, taking AEK’s aggregate score against the Bulgarian champions to that same scoreline, 4-0.
The win handed the Athens club something they hadn’t had in eight years: a place in the Champions League league phase. For Nikolic, it’s the second time he has reached that competition as a coach, after doing it once before with Lokomotiv Moscow. The Serbian, a former Partizan coach, has spent two years on the AEK bench and in that time won the Greek league title and reached Europe’s top table, a project he says is only just getting started.
“We played unbelievably well. We started strongly, we were on the attack the whole time, we put a lot of pressure on our opponents, constant pressing, we created a lot of chances,” Nikolic said after the match.
The AEK coach made no effort to hide his emotions when he spoke about the people around him, and he made clear that the domestic league remains the priority despite the European success.
“I’m very happy, overjoyed, for everyone, for the players, for the coaching staff, for everything that was done over the summer,” Nikolic said, adding: “This is the start of a project we began last year. Now that we’ve come this far, we’ll be competitive with the best teams in Europe. Of course, we haven’t forgotten the Greek championship, that remains our absolute priority for us.”
Club owner Marios Iliopoulos, known to fans by his usual nickname Super Mario, had promised the players a two million euro bonus for reaching the Champions League. The figure shows how much this step meant to AEK’s ownership, after years in which the Athens club kept falling just short of the continent’s biggest club competition.
Jovic carried into Athens the form he had shown coming into the season. His goal against Levski came just days after he scored twice in a league win over Iraklis, putting the Serbian forward in exactly the kind of form AEK needs for matches where there’s no room for mistakes.
The same night reshaped the European map elsewhere too. Dinamo Zagreb went out to Norway’s Viking, losing 3-1 away after the first leg in Zagreb finished 2-2. It’s the first Champions League qualification in Viking’s history. Fenerbahce beat Lyon 2-1 in France, after a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Istanbul, joining the growing list of clubs that have secured their spot in the league phase this season.
AEK now awaits the draw, scheduled for Thursday, August 27, at 6 p.m., when it will become clear who Nikolic and Jovic will face in the competition proper. As Greek champions, AEK will sit in one of the lower pots, meaning tougher opponents from the opening rounds, but after a night like this one, nobody in Athens is dwelling on that. The Serbian pair has already done the hardest part, getting the club a seat at the table where the continent’s best football is played. What they get dealt at that table will be known by tomorrow evening.
