UEFA Champions League: Leandro Andrade helps Qarabag hold off Ferencvaros

Azerbaijan will have a representative in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League after Leandro Andrade’s goal and assist helped them advance on Wednesday.

The Cape Verde international forward helped his club hold off Hungarian champions Ferencvaros at home for a thrilling 5-4 aggregate victory despite a 2-3 second leg defeat at home.

The visitors dropped to a 1-3 defeat in Hungary in the first leg but showed their intentions to come back early on when Lenny Joseph opened the scoring in the 12th minute. However, Andrade helped ease any concerns about a collapse when he kept his composure to fire in the equalizer in the 25th minute after receiving a cross from Nariman Akhundzade.

But Andrade’s assist was more impressive. With halftime approaching, the Portuguese-born attacker escaped a couple of defenders and exploded into space on the right wing before setting up Abdellah Zoubir to make it 2-1 in favor of the hosts (5-2 on aggregate).

The danger was far from over for Qarabag. Ferencvaros scored twice in the second half to make things tense but could not find another after Alex Toth cut the aggregate deficit to one goal in the 81st minute.

After coming up short in the qualifying stages and often settling for the UEFA Europa League, Qarabag have advanced into the main stage of the competition for the first time since the 2017-18 season. Andrade is in his fifth season with the club, accumulating 47 goals and 53 assists in 169 appearances across all competitions.