Dinamo Zagreb ran out 4-1 winners at home to Skënderbeu Korcë on Tuesday night, making them 6-2 victors on aggregate and taking them into the Champions League group stages.
Following their impressive display that secured them a 2-1 win in the first leg played in Albania, Dinamo had 90 minutes to close the play-off tie against a resilient Skëndebreu Korcë side that was expected to go all or nothing on their quest to reach the Champions League's group stage for the first time in their history.
Dinamo, however, showed they were clearly the better team and their experience was on full display as they netted two early goals that paved their way to a strong 4-1 win in front of almost 17,000 fans at Maksimir Stadion.
Lively first half sees Dinamo take, surrender, and regain the lead
The first half started with an impressive pace from both sides as Dinamo Zagreb tried to attack through the flanks while Skënderbeu tried to hit their rivals on the counter. The hosts, however, managed to find the back of the net first in the ninth minute when El Arabi Hilal Soudani took advantage of a perfect cross into the far post to nod the ball home from close range.
The Albanian champions didn't sit back though and they equalised only one minute after El Soudani's goal. A long ball found Kristi Vangjeli and, even though the right-back couldn't score, the rebound fell to Brazilian winger Esquerdinha who found himself with acres of space inside the box to tap the ball into the back of the net.
Still, Dinamo didn't want any kind of surprise and they re-gained the lead shortly after when Armin Hodzic blasted a one-time volley to the near post to put the Croatian champions back in the lead after only 15 minutes of play.
Skënderbeu did everything they could to move the lines forward after they conceded the second goal but, despite knowing they would've needed three more goals, they weren't exactly sharp and often looked a bit rushed in the final third. Dinamo tried to take as much time off the clock as they could and they committed several fouls which meant that Goncalo, Ante Coric and Josip Pivaric were all admonished before the end of a first half that ended with a 2-1 lead for the home side.
Skënderbeu can't fight back as Dinamo round things off
Skënderbeu saw a light early in the second half when Dinamo's Goncalo was sent off after being showed a second yellow card for a strong tackle, one that could've easily awarded him a straight red. However, the visitors were unable to generate any sort of offense and instead they conceded a third goal to Dinamo when a corner kick, taken by Machado, was converted by Jeremy Taravel to add another for the home side. Taravel missed the header after the cross but the ball fell right to him so the former Lokeren defender placed the ball below the keeper, who could do nothing to stop the effort.
The game was pretty much over after Dinamo's third as Skënderbeu realised they weren't going to be able to turn things around, even though they had one more player on the pitch.
Despite the fact that the Albanian side never stopped trying to cause havoc on the counter, Dinamo always looked in control of the game and they concluded the scoring the 80th minute when a lobbed pass from substitute Junior Fernandes found El Soudani, who scored his second goal of the match and the fourth one for his side.
After Gianluca Rocchi blew his whistle following an uneventful final 10 minutes, the Dinamo players were finally able to celebrate thanks to a 6-2 win on aggregate that puts them back in the Champions League's group stage. It will be the third time in the last five years that Dinamo have reached this round in Europe's top competition and now it remains to be seen which teams they'll face, but that will be known following Friday's draw, to be held in Monaco.