“We showed that it is not easy to come here to play on our home field”

HJK beat the Latvian champion club Rigas FS 1–0 in the home leg of the 1st qualifying round of the Champions League. Manuel Martic scored the decisive hit of the match with his bull-like performance.

After a bad return ball, Martic took a game tool from the opponent’s lowest player with a shoulder-to-shoulder tackle and shot a 1-0 goal from close range from the Club’s first goal slot in the 11th minute.

The Austrian player Martic plays in the midfield and has not excelled in scoring goals often. The goal was his second in an HJK shirt.

No other hits were seen in the match. In the opening half, HJK took the goal posts 5–1, but in the second 45 minutes, Rigas FS was at times on the back foot. However, the guests did not reach the top spots. In the end, HJK took care of the match in style.

Strong 84 minutes on HJK’s left wing Try Soiri was glad that HJK took over the host right from the start.

– A good final result and we kept our own heads clean. We managed to keep the tempo of the game good and put good pressure on the opponent with our pressing game, we forced them into mistakes.

– Although the opponent was able to get into the game better in the second half, at the same time we didn’t give them any dangerous chances. In the end games, this is the most important thing.

Soiri noted that in the attacking game HJK won a lot of second balls and thereby created pressure for the Latvian champions.

– We are only halfway there. Today, however, we played a solid 90 minutes and showed that it is not easy to come here to play on our home field. For my part, my body felt good and it was nice to play. I get fired up by these big games and look forward to more of them.

The next place will be decided next Tuesday, July 12, in the second part in Riga. If HJK ​​wins the pair of matches against RFS, it will face the Czech champion team Viktoria Plzen in the second qualifying round of the Champions League. If HJK ​​loses to Riga in the Champions League qualifying, its Euro summer will continue in the third qualifying round of the Conference League.

Turku’s FC Inter beat Kosovo’s Drita 1–0 in the opening match of the first qualifying round of the Football Conference League.

– An important victory, but no celebrations can be organized yet. The opponent will certainly be tough on their home field and is a really smart team. It was by no means the best performance from us, and strangely we were in a hurry and tense at the end of the game. There was no way it showed on the field that we played twenty minutes with a man advantage, Petteri Forsell stated to STT.

The home team’s 19-year-old defender Jussi Niska headed the match’s only complete hit from the side free kick given by Forsell in the 77th minute. Moments before the opponent Ilir Blakqori had received his second yellow card in the match, which led to his sending off.

The teams will meet on Tuesday next week in Pristina. The winner of the match pair will face the Belgian Royal Antwerp in the second round.

On Thursday, the Finnish teams KuPS and SJK will start their Euro match. KuPS will face Georgian FC Dila in Kuopio and SJK will face FC Flora in Tallinn. Both matches start at 19:00.