AEK Athens and Dinamo Zagreb played out one of the matches of the season so far on Saturday night for a place in the playoff round of the UEFA Champions League.
Celtic fans had an eye on the encounter due to the potential of the Bhoys landing an extra £970,000 from UEFA’s ten-year coefficient payout for Champions League group stage participants.
Both AEK and their playoff-round opponents Antwerp are below Celtic in the 10-year ranking that decides how those payments are allocated, with Dinamo above, meaning Celtic are certain to move up one place. Each placing is worth that £970k. The Bhoys are due to bank close to £10m in total from that coefficient payment alone, before participation and TV pool money.
And the Celtic-linked goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was at the centre of a crazy 90 minutes that resulted in a 2-2 draw on the night, and a 4-3 aggregate victory for the Greeks.
Dinamo had actually taken a lead in the tie heading into stoppage time in Athens. However, Sergio Araujo dramatically equalised on aggregate for the hosts one minute into added time and the tie looked destined for an additional 30 minutes.
However, the Croatian outfit then conceded a controversial VAR handball penalty right at the death, with Livakovic saving the spot-kick from Levi Garcia before the ball was headed home by Domagoj Vida, sparking wild scenes.
It was heartbreak from Dinamo but jubilation for AEK and their passionate supporters. They now have a very realistic chance of joining Celtic in the groups at the expense of Antwerp and it’ll be interesting to see who makes it.
Either way, the Bhoys do get that extra money – almost £1m – and more could be on the way over the coming weeks if Panathinaikos and Rakow come through ties against Braga and Copenhagen.
Livakovic, meanwhile, looks destined for a move to Turkey and that move may well go through this week following the Croatian outfit’s Champions League exit.
In other news, Wolves boss provides Daniel Podence latest; Celtic target deletes tweet and is omitted from squad.
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