Epic comeback leads Maccabi past Aktobe

An epic comeback had Maccabi Haifa beat Kazakh outfit Aktobe 4-3 to advance to the fourth preliminary round of the Champions League.

Aktobe held their Israeli opponents to a goalless draw in the first leg and cruised to a 0-3 lead in just 15 minutes. Yevgeni Averchenko, Anton Chichulin and Emil Kenzhisariev scored to leave the hosts completely stunned.

But Maccabi did a great job recovering. Yaniv Katan pulled one back in the 26th minute, followed by a goal from Eyal Golsa in the 34th.

Vladimir Dvalishvili then equalised in the 59th minute, although at this point, Aktobe still had the away goal advantage. The Russian forward added another in the 62nd minute though to complete Maccabi’s comeback from 0-3 to 4-3.