Royal Antwerp will host AEK Athens in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League playoff-round tie on Tuesday at the Bosuilstadion.
Royal Antwerp will host AEK Athens in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League playoff-round tie on Tuesday at the Bosuilstadion. The Belgian champions will enter the tournament at the final qualification hurdle. While the Greek visitors had to overcome the challenge of the Dinamo Zagreb in the most dramatic fashion.
Royal Antwerp’s edged out their fellow title rivals to win their first top-flight crown since 1957 in the Belgium Pro League. With domestic stardom comes a path into Champions League football. Antwerp returned to the big time 66 years on from their inaugural European Cup appearance. However, Antwerp has slowly risen from the doldrums to reach the Europa League group stage in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns. Under the wing of Dutch icon Mark van Bommel since 2022, Antwerp has already added the Belgian Super Cup to its cabinet.
On the other hand, disgraceful scenes of fan disorder overshadowed AEK Athens’ third-round qualifying tie with Dinamo Zagreb earlier this month. As a result, the Greek champions won with a 2-1 first-leg success. Konstantinos Galanopoulos’s 90th-minute winner sealed it in the first leg. While the rescheduled Athens stage of the tie was also decided in equally gripping circumstances. Few could have written such a spectacular script for Saturday’s European tie, as Vida consigned his old employers to Europa League football while keeping AEK Athens in with a shot of a first Champions League group-stage appearance since the 2018-19 season, where they unsurprisingly fell to Ajax, Benfica and Bayern Munich’s superiority. However, the visitors have only ever won one of their previous 12 clashes with Belgian opposition. This offers Van Bommel’s side some hope of a prolonged Champions League adventure.
Butez, Bataille, De Laet, Alderweireld, Avila, Ekkelenkamp, Vermeeren, Balikwisha, Kerk, Janssen, Ondrejka
Stankovic, Sidibe, Vida, Moukoudi, Hajsafi, Jonsson, Szymanski, Amrabat, Zuber, Pineda, Araujo
| Opponents | Score |
| Oud-Heverlee Leuven | 1-1 (D) |
| Kortrijk | 6-0 (W) |
| Anderlecht | 1-0 (L) |
| Cercle Brugge | 1-0 (W) |
| KV Mechelen | 1-1 (W) (p.s.o 5-4) |
| Opponents | Score |
| Dinamo Zagreb | 2-2 (D) |
| Dinamo Zagreb | 1-2 (W) |
| Trabzonspor | 1-3 (W) |
| Volos | 0-3 (W) |
| Shakhtar | 5-0 (W) |
| Results | Score |
| AEK Athens beat Royal Antwerp | 3-0 |
| AEK Athens beat Royal Antwerp | 2-0 |
The UEFA Champions League qualifier match between Antwerp and AEK Athens will take place at the Bosuilstadion on Wednesday at 12:30 am IST.
| Antwerp vs AEK Athens | Key Details |
| Date | August 23 |
| Venue | Bosuilstadion |
| Kickoff time in Greece | 8:30 pm (Tuesday) |
| Kickoff time in Belgium | 9:00 pm (Tuesday) |
| Kickoff time in India | 12:30 am (Wednesday) |
Football fans in Belgium can catch the live action via VTM 2. At the same time, those in the United Kingdom can watch the match via TNT Sports 2, discovery+ and Discovery+ App.
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