diff --git a/lib/behat/behat_base.php b/lib/behat/behat_base.php
index e59bb584a81..d01213b4fec 100644
--- a/lib/behat/behat_base.php
+++ b/lib/behat/behat_base.php
@@ -944,4 +944,22 @@ class behat_base extends Behat\MinkExtension\Context\RawMinkContext {
         }
         return $DB->get_record('user', ['id' => $userid]);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Trigger click on node via javascript instead of actually clicking on it via pointer.
+     *
+     * This function resolves the issue of nested elements with click listeners or links - in these cases clicking via
+     * the pointer may accidentally cause a click on the wrong element.
+     * Example of issue: clicking to expand navigation nodes when the config value linkadmincategories is enabled.
+     * @param NodeElement $node
+     */
+    protected function js_trigger_click($node) {
+        if (!$this->running_javascript()) {
+            $node->click();
+        }
+        $this->ensure_node_is_visible($node); // Ensures hidden elements can't be clicked.
+        $xpath = $node->getXpath();
+        $script = "Syn.click({{ELEMENT}})";
+        $this->getSession()->getDriver()->triggerSynScript($xpath, $script);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/lib/tests/behat/behat_navigation.php b/lib/tests/behat/behat_navigation.php
index f49fdfbd750..9460ebd4896 100644
--- a/lib/tests/behat/behat_navigation.php
+++ b/lib/tests/behat/behat_navigation.php
@@ -290,21 +290,7 @@ class behat_navigation extends behat_base {
             if ($pnode && $this->running_javascript() && $pnode->hasAttribute('aria-expanded') &&
                 ($pnode->getAttribute('aria-expanded') == "false")) {
 
-                $this->ensure_node_is_visible($pnode);
-
-                // If node is a link then some driver click in the middle of the node, which click on link and
-                // page gets redirected. To ensure expansion works in all cases, check if the node to expand is a
-                // link and if yes then click on link and wait for it to navigate to next page with node expanded.
-                $nodetoexpandliteral = behat_context_helper::escape($parentnodes[$i]);
-                $nodetoexpandxpathlink = $pnodexpath . "/a[normalize-space(.)=" . $nodetoexpandliteral . "]";
-
-                if ($nodetoexpandlink = $node->find('xpath', $nodetoexpandxpathlink)) {
-                    $behatgeneralcontext = behat_context_helper::get('behat_general');
-                    $nodetoexpandlink->click();
-                    $behatgeneralcontext->wait_until_the_page_is_ready();
-                } else {
-                    $pnode->click();
-                }
+                $this->js_trigger_click($pnode);
 
                 // Wait for node to load, if not loaded before.
                 if ($pnode->hasAttribute('data-loaded') && $pnode->getAttribute('data-loaded') == "false") {