Coleraine Youths create history with superb victory in Macedonia

The young Bannsiders, who won the first leg at The Showgrounds last week 2-1, fought back from a goal down to seal a 2-2 in Macedonia on Wednesday afternoon.

Viktor Tosheski gave the home side the lead with only six minutes on the clock and level the tie on aggregate.

They had the ball in the net again three minutes later but this time it was ruled out for offside.

Marty Smith’s men had another big let off nine minutes before the break when David Debreslioski went through one-on-one, but he fired wide of the target.

Coleraine almost took the aggregate lead again on 54 minutes but Luca Doherty’s shot was somehow cleared off the line by Leonid Kofilovski.

The Bannsiders had a penalty appeal waved away midway through the half before they found an equaliser on the day as Doherty picked out Luke Kelly to score on 82 minutes.

And it got even better for the Northern Irish outfit five minutes later when Rory Moffatt curled home a superb free-kick to give his side a two-goal cushion as the game moved into the closing stages.

Todoroski converted a stoppage time penalty for Pobeda but it wasn’t enough to deny Coleraine another famous European and set up a meeting with Genk in the next round much to the delight of the players, staff and travelling support.