Crazy moments at HJK’s home match! The British media started to go wild – was the driver of the plow car the best of the match? | Sport

In their last home game of the year, HJK played a 2–2 draw against the Scottish club Aberdeen. The previous meeting between the teams in Aberdeen also ended in a draw, with the numbers 1-1.

HJK started the match perfectly. Hassan Bandé gave the Club the lead at 15 minutes with a nice shot. Santeri Hostikka slipped into the draw and drove the 2–0 goal into the back corner in the 33rd minute.

Aberdeen’s reduction in the opening period was also handsome, when by Angus MacDonald a ferocious cannon from more than twenty meters swung irresistibly past the top corner Niki Mäenpään.

Aberdeen equalized in the 56th minute. Huhkaja player Richard Jensen continued with a corner kick and Duk finished.

In the second period, HJK still had great chances for the winning goal. Bojan Radulovic let down a great place Perparim for Hetemajbut this raced over the goal.

Hetemaj, who came on the field as a substitute, played for the last time in front of his home crowd. His career ends when HJK plays its last Conference League match on 14.12. In Greece as a guest of PAOK.

Of course, many other players appeared for the last time in an HJK shirt in Töölö. Roope Risk moves to Ilves and Aleksi Paananen AC to Oulu. Niko Hämäläinen, Filip Rogic and Christopher Da Graca continue their careers elsewhere. Big promise Matti Peltola moves abroad. In addition, the head coach Toni Korkeakunnas coached his last HJK home match.

F1 drivers in plow cars?

However, the big talking point of the match was the wintry conditions, which the Scottish journalists had already admired and wondered about in their social media updates before the match. When the match started, the temperature in Helsinki was -4, but the wind made the air feel like -10. It was also snowing.

During the match, the fans of the teams got excited about throwing snowballs. Especially from the end of the Scottish fans, snowballs were thrown towards HJK goalkeeper Mäenpää to such an extent that the announcer had to intervene. Even that didn’t calm the spectators, so the Aberdeen players also signaled their supporters to behave.

Already at the break of the match, the field had to be plowed from the snow. When the second Half had been played for a good 70 minutes, the referee ordered the match to be stopped. For example, it was hard to see the borders because of the snow. The players went to the locker room and the plow trucks took over the field again.

In this case, HJK showed an eye for the game when the DJ played the Christmas classic Kulkuset from the speakers.

You walk, you walk with glee. The white flakes of winter are flying. Sleigh, sleigh get up and go! It sings its song under the snow.

In the British media, the suspension of the match even created a terrible mood. In the BBC’s match tracking a picture of a snow plow was published with the caption “Player of the match”.

The plow drivers did such a good job that, according to the BBC monitoring, there had to be plow cars in the tracks Max Verstappen’s and Lewis Hamilton.

– I must say that I have been reporting on football for 25 years, and this is the first time, wondered the journalist Tyrone Smith suspension of the match.

– You can hardly see anything green on the field anymore, and the players of both teams are really having trouble staying upright. We’ve heard about drinking breaks, so maybe we should have a tractor break now, Smith thought earlier.

The behavior of Aberdeen fans also spoke on the BBC. The reporter noted that the referee had requested the player Jonny Hayes to calm down the snowballs.

– The message over the loudspeakers says that throwing snowballs onto the field is strictly prohibited and the referee can stop the match for safety reasons if it continues. This has been heard three times now.

HJK was disappointed with the draw

For HJK, losing the lead earlier in the Aberdeen away match was disappointing. Head coach Toni Korkeakunnas stated before the home match that three surfaces should have been taken care of in the away game.

Even though the continuation place was lost, the games also have their financial value. A win in the group stage brings 500,000 euros, a draw 160,000 euros. The biggest pot already came from entering the group stage, i.e. 2.94 million euros.

Now HJK had 57 percent of the ball, scoring positions were recorded 13–12 and shots towards the goal 6–6. Korkeakunnas, who the fans remembered with the “Kiitos Toke” sheet, was very disappointed with the draw.

– Should have been able to kill the game. We played damn good football in the first half. It was really fun and good attacking. Then when it couldn’t be clapped… If we had reached the break with 2–0, this would have been taken care of. It’s a joke. Considering the starting points, a great game from the boys again, they are a sweet gang and they deserved the victory, Korkeakunnas told Viaplay.

– You should be able to kill these when the momentum is there. Yes, we had countless high xG (expected goals) spots.

Hetemaj’s mother has an emotional situation

Hetemaj had just come from the substitution to the field before the interruption of the second period. He stated that he has not come across a similar plowing break in his career. However, the snow didn’t bother me too much, the central midfield hunkered down.

– Just before that, I had pulled over from a good place, so I had to think about it quite a lot. That has been the main thing in my mind now, Hetamaj laughed in an interview with Urheilu.

After the last home game of my career, it was still hard to describe the feelings. Hetemaj said that the end of his career has been seen especially in the flood of messages that have now come from outside football as well.

– Maybe for the family, for the mother, it has been a more emotional moment. He is used to seeing us always playing. Last year brother (Mehmet Hetamaj) finished and now I’m finishing.

However, it was easy to concentrate on playing.

– Yeah yeah. I just knew that if I get on the field, I have to give it my all as I have done for the last 20 years. It’s just sad that we didn’t get a win. That was the goal spot that will now haunt me for the rest of my life. There has to be something left to do.

In interviews before and after the match, HJK fans praised Hetemaj’s career, but also his giving and sympathetic nature.

– Thank you so much. Like I said, the fans are the salt of this thing. I have received a lot of love, sometimes more than I deserved. Thanks everybody. It has always been nice to play in front of the fans of Finland and HJK. That’s why I wanted to end my career here, where it once started.