UEFA Champions League REVIEW 26 Aug 2026: Viking turn it round in Stavanger, and Norway have two in the league phase

Four play-off second legs, four places in the league phase, and not one of the first legs had settled anything. Viking beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 in Stavanger, AEK Athens beat Levski Sofia 4-0, Slovan Bratislava won 2-1 at Celje after extra time, and Fenerbahce won 2-1 at Lyon. Each losing side goes into the Europa League league phase instead.

Viking's was the turnaround of the night. Arber Hoxha headed Dinamo Zagreb in front inside ten minutes, and it took a video review of a handball by Scott McKenna for Zlatko Tripic to equalise from the penalty spot on 18. Then two minutes at the start of the second half decided it: Edvin Austbo finished from Kristoffer Askildsen's pass on 48, and Tobias Moi swept in from a Tripic throw-in on 50. Dinamo Zagreb had more of the ball and more shots; Viking had more of them on target. Tripic, who had promised after the first leg to make a witch's cauldron of the SR-Bank Arena, said afterwards: "There are many feelings. I'm so proud of what we've managed. It's so big." Mario Kovacevic needed three words in Croatian, that the mistakes had killed them. Viking's only previous European Cup campaign was in 1972, and this takes Norway to two clubs in the league phase for the first time since 1999.

AEK Athens settled theirs before the interval. Luka Jovic headed in a cross from the right on seven minutes, Barnabas Varga struck from inside the box on 12 and headed a third from a corner on 29, and Razvan Marin added a penalty on 55. Marko Nikolic, whose side had drawn the first leg goalless in Sofia, said that if anyone had told him a year ago they would be one match from this he would have called them crazy. Julio Velazquez was unusually direct in defeat: AEK Athens, he said, were the better team from the first minute to the last, and that was the reality. Levski Sofia drop into the Europa League league phase, which Bulgarian reporting makes their first appearance at that stage of a European competition in sixteen years.

At Celje the tie needed extra time. Andraz Sporar, back in the side after injury, put Slovan Bratislava ahead on 18 and Svit Seslar equalised from the spot on 34; Celje pushed, hit the post on 67 and could not find a second, and Cristian Martinez won it on 100 in front of a full house of around 11,500. Slovan Bratislava reach the league phase for the second time, and Yaya Toure becomes the first African coach to take a side there. Lyon's night turned on two goals that did not stand. Vedat Muriqi and Archie Brown had Fenerbahce two up inside half an hour and Malick Fofana pulled one back on 61, before a Lois Openda finish was ruled offside and a Kail Boudache goal annulled for a foul in the build-up. Fenerbahce end a wait for the competition proper that their own press puts at seventeen seasons; Lyon, back in it for the first time in six years, do not stay.