AGF must settle for participating in the Conference League, which begins in mid-October. The Danish champions had the chance to qualify for the Europa League on Thursday, but Portuguese side Benfica—as expected—secured the spot.
After a 3-1 home victory, the Lisbon giants won the return leg in Randers by the same scoreline, triumphing 6-2 on aggregate.
AGF faced a steep uphill battle from the start, and the challenge became even tougher when Benfica took a 1-0 lead after 18 minutes. Dane Alexander Bah sent the ball across the box from the right flank, and Argentine forward Gianluca Prestianni fired the pass low into the net.
The home side played some good football at times but struggled to create chances against their formidable opponents. The Aarhus side sensed a goal when they were awarded a penalty, but the referee—quite rightly—overturned the decision following a VAR review.
Benfica were simply a class above, a fact they underlined when they doubled the lead ten minutes after the break. Swede Samuel Dahl reached the byline and cut the ball back to Rafa Silva, who smashed it beautifully into the net.
AGF's highlight of the match came five minutes later. Wing-back Rasmus Carstensen broke up a Benfica attack and hammered the ball into the corner from just over 20 meters out to pull a goal back, making it 1-2.
However, in a move that typified the match, Benfica responded with an even better goal just a minute later. Prestianni dribbled into space at the edge of the AGF box and smashed the ball into the far corner to make it 3-1.
The home crowd kept the atmosphere lively and seemed to accept that Benfica were simply the better side. Earlier in the season, AGF had a good chance of reaching the Champions League following their remarkable comeback against Lech Poznan, where they overturned a 1–4 home defeat to win on penalties in Poland.
AGF then needed to beat Sabah from Azerbaijan and subsequently Israel’s Hapoel Be'er Sheva to reach the biggest club competition of all, but they fell short after a collapse against Sabah; instead, they were drawn against Benfica in the Europa League qualifiers.