Last night in the UEFA Conference League, Armandas Kučys played a pivotal role in helping NK Celje reach the quarter-finals. He scored a goal and assisted in a thrilling match against Swiss side FC Lugano, which ultimately concluded after penalty kicks.
In the first leg of the tie last week, Celje emerged victorious with a 1-0 win, during which Kučys played 84 minutes. They were considered heavy underdogs heading into the second leg, but Kučys remained in the starting lineup.
The first leg’s deficit evaporated midway through the first half when Lugano scored the opening goal. However, just before halftime, Kučys set up Svit Seslar to regain the lead on aggregate. Unfortunately for Celje, Lugano responded swiftly, scoring two goals in two minutes through Greek striker Georgios Koutsias and Daniel Dos Santos, giving them the lead on aggregate.
The second half continued to deliver excitement. In the 68th minute, NK Celje leveled the tie after scoring their second goal of the match. They nearly added a third soon after, but the goal was disallowed due to an offside call after a VAR review.
In the 80th minute, Lugano regained the aggregate lead as Georgios Koutsias scored again. It seemed that Celje’s remarkable European journey was coming to an end. However, in the additional time, the referee was called to the VAR monitor and awarded Celje a penalty for a foul in the penalty area. Lugano’s defender Albian Hajdari received a straight red card for the incident.
With the pressure mounting, Armandas Kučys stepped up and confidently scored the penalty, leveling the aggregate score as the match went into extra time.
During extra time, both teams scored one more goal, leading to a dramatic penalty shootout. Celje converted all their penalty kicks, while Lugano missed three out of four attempts. Armandas did not take a penalty kick as he was substituted in the 117th minute of the game.
This result marks a historic day for both NK Celje and Armandas Kučys as they advance to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Conference League, where they will face Italian side Fiorentina, who defeated Greek team Panathinaikos to reach this stage.
Edgaras Utkus and Cercle Brugge were eliminated from the competition after failing to overcome a three-goal deficit from the first leg against Polish champions Jagiellonia. In the second leg, with Utkus playing 67 minutes, Cercle Brugge won the match 2-0 but lost on aggregate 2-3.
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