Harambee Stars youngster Collins Sichenje had a debut to savour for his Swedish outfit AIK as he saw his team complete a famous comeback on Wednesday night against Ukrainian outfit Vorskla Poltava to advance to the third round of the Uefa Europa Conference League qualifiers.Initially trailing 2-3 after the first leg played last week, AIK managed to overturn the scoreline in front of their home fans as they recorded a 2-0 victory at the Friends Arena to successfully book their ticket to the third round courtesy of the 4-3 aggregate scoreline.Prior to the encounter, Sichenje, the former AFC Leopards player, had not made a competitive appearance for the team since his move from Kenya back in April 2022. His only senior appearance had been in a friendly match against Molde in June.In the tense encounter, it is AIK who managed to get a crucial lead just minutes before the half time break as Joe Mendes struck deep into first half added time to level the scores at 3-3 on aggregate. Kenyan international Erick ‘Marcelo’ Ouma, who had also been included in the starting eleven provided the assist to the opener for AIK in the 45+3rd minute.We move forward together 💛 https://t.co/4lWpCmmStp— Erick Ouma (@Erick__ouma) July 27, 2022 In the second half, both teams failed to breach each other’s backline as the game was forced into extra time with the away goal rule being scrapped.In the first half of extra time, Axel Bjornstrom scored the second goal to send the AIK fans into a frenzy as they took a 4-3 advantage on aggregate. That goal proved to be the match winner as AIK firmly held tight to progress to the third round where they await the winner between Valmiera FC (LVA) and KF Shkëndija (MKD) on Thursday, August 4, 2022.While Otieno featured for the full 120 minutes, Sichenje was withdrawn in the 105th minute of the game.AIK byter inför den andra förlängningskvarten. Vi tackar Collins Sichenje för en utmärkt AIK-debut, och John Guidetti för en jätteinsats. Nabil Bahoui och Jesper Ceesay kommer in i matchen.106’ | 🇸🇪 #AIKFCV 🇺🇦 | 1–0 (Agg: 3–3)— AIK Fotboll (@aikfotboll) July 27, 2022 Henry Meja, who also plies his trade at the club, was an unused substitute.
