A draw away in Malta but there was never any danger about going through

Six goals were shared in the second leg but it is Videoton that go through 5-3 on aggregate.

Videoton travelled to Malta to play Balzan FC with a two goal lead from the first leg. The intense heat did not make things easy for the players. The game started with a shock to Vidi as Balzan took a 3rd minute lead. Ljubomaric hit the ball across from the right, which Kaljevic reacted to and scored from close range 1-0.

The 13th minute saw Suljic play the ball back to Scepovic, who blasted the ball at goal, but a defender managed to clear it off the goal line. The travelling Vidi supporters were on their feet celebrating the equaliser a minute later. Nego's flat cross arrived to Scepovic, who made no mistake with his close range shot that the keeper parried into the path of Geresi 1-1.

That virtually made sure of going through to the next round as the home side needed to score 3 goals in the remaining 75 minutes without conceding any goals. Balzan escaped a strong penalty appeal when Geresi was squeezed out by a defender on 16 minutes. The Slovakian match official waved play on. 

Vidi went ahead on the day after 23 minutes. Lazovic fed Scepovic and he clipped the ball elegantly past Janjusevic to make it 1- 2 and 1-4 on aggregate. That has taken the Serbian forwards goals in pre-season friendly games and the Europa league to one a game. The teams went in at the break with Vidi leading 2-1. 

The second half started in similar fashion to the first 45 minutes: a ball forward found Effion in the box, and he lifted the ball over Kovacsik to level on the night and make it 2-2 after 53 minutes. Substitute Kovacs showed good skill before finding Lazovic, who used his heel to play it on to Hadzic, but he shot wide of goal from 17 meters. A home defender cleared off the goal line ten minutes later following a Juhasz header from a Lazovic corner. 

There was nothing that the home side could do on 80 minutes. Lazovic sent his curling free kick to Juhasz, who headed home from close range to make it 2-3.

There was time for the sixth goal of the game after 84 minutes with Kaljevic scoring from a penalty to make it 3-3 and 3-5 on aggregate. 

Vidi progress into the Q2 stage with the opponents being either B36 Torshavn of the Faroe Islands or Estonian side Kalju. The Estonian side won the first leg 2-1 at home last week with the return leg on Thursday at 19:00pm 

Author: David Rechnitzer

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