Klaksvik was the first team from Faroe Islands to advance to the group stage in the Eurocourts by beating the Swedish champion Häcken 4–3. Pikkukaupunki will next face Molde, the Norwegian champion who overthrew HJK.
Tiny KI Klaksvik made football history by securing a place in the group stage of the UEFA club competition as the first team from Faroe Islands. The town of Klaksvik represented by the team has just over 5,000 inhabitants.
Klaksvik defeated Sweden’s reigning champion BK Häcken 4–3 after a penalty shootout in Gothenburg on Wednesday night and secured their place in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.
The opening match between the teams ended last week in Klaksvik with a 0–0 result. With the win, Klaksvik will be seen in the autumn at least in the group stage of the Conference League.
– Tears of happiness. What team. Which city. What a story, the club raved on social media.
Klaksvik became the hero with two goals and a penalty kick Arni Frederiksberg.
In the history of Europeli, only San Marino and Malta’s Balzan have previously made it to the second qualifying round on the Eurofields from towns smaller than Klaksvik.
See below the goal that sealed Klaksvik’s victory and the rowdy atmosphere from the local restaurant.
A disappointed Häcken got to hear his honor
The Swedish media did not spare their words regarding the outcome of the match. Among other things, in Aftonbladet, in Expressen that SVT is full of scandal results and fiasco.
– You can choose any negative adjective to describe this situation, everything feels bad right now, Häcken’s team captain Samuel Gustafson said to SVT.
– We had the most to lose and there were a lot of worn legs on the field. Some of our players’ legs were downright leaden, Hacken’s head coach Per-Mathias Högmo hurt for Aftonbladet.
The fatigue of the Swedish club was understandable, as Häcken played for a long time against Elfsborg in the Swedish premier league last weekend with ten players by Ibrahim Sadiq because of the outing.
Klaksvik meets a new champion again
Klaksvik already presented a bang in the opening round of the qualifiers by knocking down the Hungarian champion Ferencvaros. The capacity of Klaksvik’s home stadium is a paltry 2,500 spectators, of which 1,335 are seats.
Below is a picture from Djúpumýra, Klaksvik’s home stadium.
Klaksvik will next challenge the Norwegian champion Molde, who defeated HJK 2-1 on aggregate on Wednesday. Klaksvik is piloted by a Norwegian Magne Hosethwho played in Molde’s shirt for years.
HJK’s games continue in the Europa League qualifiers against Azerbaijan’s Qarabag.