The home team took the lead in the 39th minute through Marko Bulat. But in the second half, AEK came back and turned the game around. The big hero was Konstantinos Galanopoulos with the winning goal that came in the 90th minute.
The match was marred by tragedy in which a 29-year-old Greek supporter was stabbed to death and eight other people were injured last week when supporters clashed outside the stadium in Athens.
Uefa postponed the match and instead the first meeting was played in Zagreb.
The return match will be played on Saturday 19 August in Athens.
Qualifying matches were played elsewhere around Europe. The successful team Klaksvik from the Faroe Islands, which beat the Swedish champion Häcken in the previous round, was close to another shock. But Norwegian Molde drew the longest straw and won 2–0 after extra time. Molde thus went on with a total of 3–2.
For Klaksvik, a playoff for the Europa League awaits.
For FC Copenhagen, things were going downhill against Sparta Prague. But then Swedish national team star Viktor Claesson stepped forward and saved the team. First, he scored the tying goal in the first quarter of overtime. Then Claesson became a two-goal scorer when he once again equalized in the 112th minute and took the match to penalties after a 3-3 aggregate. Once there, FCK could move on. Jordan Larsson also got on the scoresheet when he gave FC Copenhagen the lead after two minutes of play.