FC Copenhagen reached the group stage of the holy grail of football tonight following a 1-1 draw in Cyprus against APOEL.
The Danes dominated most of the proceedings, but needed a late equaliser through Frederico Santander to seal the 2-1 win on aggregate.
APOEL had neutralised the Lions’ 1-0 home win from last week by scoring on one of their few attacking forages after 69 minutes through Pieros Sotiriou. Both Andreas Cornelius and Erik Johansson had gone close earlier for FCK.
The match was looking destined to go into extra time until FCK’s Paraguayan striker got the decider by tricking the keeper into thinking he was going to pass from an angle only to blast home.
READ MORE: FCK inching closer to Champions League
Big guns await
The win makes it fourth time the charm for Danish teams against APOEL following recent qualification losses to the Cypriots by FCK, FC Midtjylland and AaB Aalborg.
The draw for the group stage will take pace tomorrow evening at 18:00 and the Danes will be among the bottom seeds in pot 4, so heavy opposition can be expected.
An unlucky draw could put the Danes in a group with Bayern Munich, Athletico Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur, while a more lenient group could be Leicester City, Bayer Leverkusen and Club Brugge.
Whatever happens, FC Copenhagen can look forward to considerable revenue intake of some 200 million kroner on the back of their successful qualification.
