In the first home game of the Conference League league stage, HJK won a full point pot after a tense final moments.
HJK started the football Conference League home games with a 1–0 home win over Dinamo Minsk. At the same time, three points brought the HJK coffin guard 400,000 euros in prize money.
Dinamo’s defender in overtime Vladislav Kalinin runta from the post-corner situation, the equalizer rose up from the preliminary work of his goalkeeper. However, the hit was reviewed and after a long deliberation it was ruled offside with the help of VAR – luckily for HJK.
Liam Moller finished the decisive 1–0 goal for HJK right at the beginning of the second half.
Lee Erwin did a strong preparatory work for the only hit of the match. Dinamo’s goalkeeper got his hand slightly in front of the top man’s shot Fedor Lapoukhovbut the ball bounced appropriately to Möller, who ran in front of the goal, and had an easy job of nailing the device into the net.
For 19-year-old Möller, the complete hit was the fourth of the season. Two of the goals had come in the football league and one in the Finnish Cup. The attacking midfielder has been at HJK on the Academy path since the age of 12, when he switched to Espoo Palloseura Klub.
HJK’s Plange wasted the most
Changed to Dinamo striker Trofim Melnichenko had time to be on the field for only two minutes, when he saved a corner kick in the aftermath of a certain HJK hit from the goal line with his hand save, for which he received a straight red card in the 82nd minute.
For the ensuing penalty kick, HJK’s substitute, an Englishman Luke Plange however, shot the ball within reach of the Dinamo goalkeeper and failed in his 11-meter penalty.
Both HJK and Minsk had lost their matches in the opening round of the Conference League three weeks ago.
HJK lost to Lugano in Switzerland with goals 0-3, the Belarusians playing their home game behind closed doors in Azerbaijan bowed “at home” to the Scottish Hearts with a winning goal in extra time 1-2.
HJK had lost their previous four games, including all series, and their last win (against VPS) was as far back as September 1st.
Dinamo is currently leading the Belarusian league in a tie with Nemani. In the last 15 matches, the team has achieved 13 wins, 1 draw and suffered 1 loss.
Visit the better places to do it in the beginning
In the first, goalless half, Dinamo created more chances than the hosts. Twice HJK goalkeeper Thijmen Nijhuis was able to pick up the ball from behind his back in the net, but both times were offside situations, fortunately for HJK’s faltering defense.
Nigerian tip of Stephen Alfred luckily for the club, headed the ball past the goal from the back area in the 10th minute. Ivan Bakharin a sharp shot from under the crossbar was saved by HJK’s Dutch keeper in the 22nd minute of the match.
In the opening period, Belarusians scored 11-5 in scoring attempts, 2-0 in shots on goal and 5-1 in corner kicks.
HJK improved their playing towards the end of the first half. The club Ozan Kökçü shot Santeri Hostikan from preliminary work from the ball box to Dinamo’s post in the 29th minute. The last quarter of the episode was Toni Korkeakunnsen evoking promises from wards.
HJK starting line-up: Nijhuis, O’Shaughnessy, Toivio, Antzoulas, Pallas, Kanellopoulos, Ozan Kökçü, Ylitolva, Hostikka, Möller, Erwin
Dinamo Minsk: Lapoukhov, Lopes, Gavrilovich, Polyakov, Pigas, Demchenko, Selyava, Kulikov, Bakhar, Sedko, Alfred
HJK’s next match is a home game against Olimpija Ljubljana on November 7. On Thursday, the Slovenian club beat Austrian LASK 2–0 and had lost 1–2 away to Heidenheim of the Bundesliga in the opening round.
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