The records will show this as a 1-1 draw, a penalty in each half, but in truth an under-strength Rovers side came close to pulling off a win which would have been regarded as one of the greatest one-off results achieved by an Irish club in Europe.

AEK, an ambitious and wealthy club, had notions about progressing to the knockout phase and even winning the thing. But in the end the frustrated Greek giants needed a disputed penalty two minutes from time – harshly awarded after Danny Grant was deemed to have handled the ball while defending a cross – to rescue even a point.

In fact that goal probably rescued their manager Marko Nikolic from the sack: clubs like AEK Athens do not lose at home to teams from Ireland and coaches have paid the ultimate price for a failure like that.

If Nikolic f

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