T&T’s Levi Gar­cia missed a late penal­ty, but luck­i­ly team­mate and Croa­t­ian in­ter­na­tion­al Do­magoj Vi­da was on hand to score the re­bound as AEK Athens snatched a late 2-2 draw with Croa­t­ia’s Di­namo Za­greb to win their sec­ond-leg Third Round Eu­ro­pean Cham­pi­ons League qual­i­fi­er 4-3 on ag­gre­gate on Sat­ur­day.

On Tues­day last, at Mak­simir Sta­di­um, in Za­greb, Croa­t­ia, Gar­cia had an as­sist on AEK Athens’ equalis­er as they came from be­hind to beat Croa­t­ia’s Di­namo Za­greb 2-1.

How­ev­er, play­ing at their OPAP Are­na, yes­ter­day, AEK found it­self trail­ing to a 45th-minute strike from Josip Su­ta­lo, a close-range tap-in that evened up the tie 2-2 on ag­gre­gate.

The vis­i­tors then went ahead in the tie in the 65th minute thanks to a goal from Robert Lju­bi­cic off a well-thread­ed pass.

But spurred on by their home fans AEK Athens mount­ed a spir­it­ed fight­back with for­mer Ar­genti­na youth in­ter­na­tion­al Ser­gio Arau­jo com­ing off the bench in the 67th minute to vol­ley home two min­utes in­to time added-on from a cor­ner to lev­el the tie once more at 3-3, but be­hind 1-2 on the night.

There was late dra­ma to come as AEK was then award­ed a penal­ty kick af­ter a VAR re­view, but Gar­cia’ left-foot­ed blast was well saved by Croa­t­ian in­ter­na­tion­al and World Cup goal­keep­er Do­minik Li­vakovic div­ing low to his left.

Luck­i­ly for AEK, Vi­da was alert to the play and re­act­ed quick­ly to send a down­ward head­er past his coun­try­man and in­to the goal to lev­el the match, spark­ing off wild cel­e­bra­tions as the host booked a tie with Bel­gium’s Roy­al Antwerp over two legs, start­ing on Tues­day, Au­gust 23.

The 25-year-old Gar­cia who signed a new five-year deal un­til the end of the 2027/2028 sea­son with the reign­ing Greece League and Cup cham­pi­ons on im­proved terms ear­li­er this month then pro­vid­ed the as­sist for AEK to get on lev­el terms in the 59th minute through Steven Zu­ber.

Dur­ing the pre-sea­son Gar­cia scored six goals in four match­es and last cam­paign, he net­ted 18 goals in 37 games in all com­pe­ti­tions for AEK, to fin­ish sec­ond in the ‘Gold­en Boot’ race to Olympia­cos’ Cedric Bakam­bu of the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Re­pub­lic of Con­go by four goals.

He has now scored 32 in all com­pe­ti­tions in three sea­sons with the Greek cham­pi­ons hav­ing joined the club for around £ 1.9 mil­lion from Is­rael’s Beitar Jerusalem in 2020.

AEK was set to be­gin de­fence of its Stoix­i­man Su­per League ti­tle on Au­gust 19 at home to Pane­to­likos, but be­cause of their re-arranged fix­ture in the Cham­pi­ons League qual­i­fi­er, Gar­cia and his club will now start their de­fence at home on Au­gust 27 against pro­mot­ed Panser­raikos.