The football men of HJK and the women of KuPS did well on the Euro fields on Thursday.
18.8. 21:26•Updated 18.8. 22:01
HJK defeated the Danish side Silkeborg 1–0 (0-0) in the opening part of the final stage of the Europa League qualification in Helsinki’s Töölö.
HJK’s goal scorer became the winner David Brownewho scored the winning goal in the 80th minute with a handsome top corner shot. Lucas Lingman primed the Club’s hit.
Silkeborg played almost the end of the match, when Andrew Calisir received a straight red card in the 68th minute.
– An important victory. Nolla stayed on their own again. Luckily we got at least one goal, maybe we should have tried even harder for the second one, HJK captain Miro Tenho told STT.
Second leg next Thursday in Denmark.
HJK has already secured its place at least in the group stage of the Konferenssi league.
KuPS advanced to Sunday’s next game in the UCL preliminary round
KuPS won the preliminary qualifying tournament of the Women’s Champions League with goals from Lithuania’s Gintra 2–0. The hits from Kuopio started right away in the first half of the match.
The goal account was opened in the 28th minute of the game, when Nanne Ruuskanen hit Emma Peuhkurinen input. Seven minutes later Lavdije Begolli took the people of Kuopio to a two-goal lead, which remained until the end.
The head coach of the Kuopio team Ollipekka Ojala was satisfied with a successful debut on the Euro courts.
– The match left a good taste for all of us. It is our own goodness that the final result is 2–0. The match was under our complete control from start to finish. The result is the most important thing in these games, emphasized Ojala on his club’s website.
KuPS, playing for the first time on Euro courts, advances to the final match of the qualifying tournament played in Poland. In the final, KuPS will face Anderlecht, who beat Lodz 3–2 (0-1).
The final will be played on Sunday. The winner of the qualifying tournament advances to the next qualifying round of the Champions League.