Latvian champions Riga FC survived a huge scare to book their place in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League, overcoming North Macedonian champions Vardar 5-2 after extra time at Skonto Stadium to seal an 8-4 aggregate victory.
Despite playing with a numerical advantage for more than 100 minutes, Riga found themselves 0-2 down on the night and trailing on aggregate before Abdulrahman Taiwo’s late equaliser forced extra time, where Raki Aouani’s goal finally broke Vardar’s resistance and sparked a flood of late goals.
Holding a narrow 3-2 advantage from last week’s first leg in Skopje, Riga saw that lead disappear in the 17th minute. Ian Puleio found David Babunski with a precise pass inside the penalty area, and the midfielder struck a powerful first-time volley beyond Frenks Dāvids Orols to level the tie on aggregate.
However, Vardar’s hopes suffered a major blow just a minute later. Mohammed Badamosi broke clear towards goal before being brought down by last defender Filip Najdovski, who was shown a straight red card. Riga nearly capitalised immediately from the resulting free-kick, but Iago Siqueira’s effort drifted narrowly wide.
The Latvian champions dominated possession for the remainder of the first half, peppering Davor Taleski’s goal with 16 attempts, yet the Vardar goalkeeper and his defence somehow kept the hosts at bay.
The second half followed a similar pattern, with Riga camped inside the visitors’ half but struggling to find a breakthrough. Instead, disaster struck in the 66th minute. Vardar launched virtually their only meaningful attack of the half, forcing Orols into two excellent saves before Azer Omeragic converted the rebound to put the visitors 2-0 ahead on the night and 4-3 in front on aggregate.
With elimination looming, Riga threw everything forward. Head coach Adrian Gula introduced additional attacking reinforcements, including Reginaldo Ramires and Abdulrahman Taiwo, alongside Badamosi, and the changes eventually paid off.
Three minutes from time, Ramires delivered a dangerous ball into the penalty area where Taiwo outmuscled his defender before firing home to level the tie on aggregate and send the match into extra time.
Riga nearly avoided the additional 30 minutes altogether. Deep into stoppage time, the ball fell kindly to Raki Aouani inside the penalty area, but the Tunisian failed to make clean contact with his effort, sending it wide from an excellent position.
Aouani would quickly make amends after the restart. Riga exploited their numerical superiority and worked the ball back to the Tunisian, who burst past his marker before beating Taleski from a tight angle to finally put the Latvian champions ahead on aggregate.
With Vardar’s resistance finally broken, Riga took complete control. Siqueira added another with a superb curling strike into the far corner, a goal that sparked heated confrontations between the two benches and resulted in red cards being shown to members of both coaching staffs.
Reginaldo Ramires and Caio Ferreira completed the rout in the closing stages, turning what had looked like a potential European collapse into an emphatic 8-4 aggregate triumph.
Riga FC will now face either Hungarian champions Gyor or Luxembourg’s FC Bissen in the third qualifying round. Gyor hold a commanding 6-2 advantage from the first leg ahead of Thursday’s return match.
