Qarabag nearly doubled their aggregate lead inside six minutes, when Nariman Akhundzade misguided a header under pressure from the committed Baboucarr Gaye.
That sparked Shkendija into life, and they shortly levelled the tie through Fabrice Tamba’s sidefooted finish at close range - Besart Ibraimi was the architect with a simple ball over the top that Qarabag collectively failed to stub out.
Qarabag’s fightback was immediate and brutal, with two goals to turn the game on its head in the space of under 10 minutes. As the hosts ramped up the pressure, Klisman Cake put the ball past his own goalkeeper for the equalizer, following a double deflection at the end of a cross from the right. And just two minutes later, Kady Borges converted at close range via Abdellah Zoubir’s ball into the area from the opposite flank.
Shkendija’s descent into farce continued, and Qarabag appropriately had their third in the 33rd minute with another move forward culminating in Zoubir crossing from that ever-problematic left flank and finding Akhundzade, who sent an unstoppable shot into the top corner.
And Cake was again in the spotlight for the wrong reasons just 180 seconds later, as he floored Akhundzade inside the box, allowing Marko Jankovic to step up and plant his penalty down the middle as Gaye dived to his right.
If they were to even take this one into extra time, Shkendija now needed to match the five goals they netted in domestic action against Shkupi last Friday.
However, Leandro Andrade put the tie beyond all remaining doubt on the hour mark, when he took the ball in his stride after receiving Elvin Cafarguliyev’s slick pass from the left edge of the box, and buried it at close range for his second goal in four UCL qualifiers this term.
Though anything else would have been overkill, Qarabag didn’t let up in the remaining minutes, and Cafarguliyev could have turned goalscorer but for a matter of inches as his first-time shot at the end of a botched clearance flew marginally wide.
While it ultimately wasn’t quite the seven goals Qarabag put past Ludogorets in the second leg of this UCL qualification stage last year, they’ll march on with all due confidence after extending their unbeaten run against North Macedonian sides to seven matches (W6, D1) in imperious and ruthless style.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Nariman Akhundzade (Qarabag)