Romanian Farul Constanta beat HJK 2–1 in the first leg of the Conference League qualifier. The second leg will be played on Thursday next week in Helsinki.
HJK’s summer European games continued in Romania as a guest of Farul Constanta in the Conference League qualifier. The first leg ended with the Romanians winning 2–1.
The first half was even. HJK goalie Niki Mäenpää made one fine save from a free kick at less than ten minutes. HJK’s most promising situations turned out to be offsides or manual errors.
At the beginning of the second half, HJK took the lead. Tuomas Ollila gave a corner kick from which an experienced defender Joona Toivio was able to move the ball into the net. However, the hit was later corrected as an own goal.
– A corner kick, the ball to the trapdoor, to Sohima and the ball was in the goal, Toivio described the situation to Urheilu.
However, HJK’s lead only lasted for less than ten minutes. Playing in the ranks of Farul, in 1999 he was chosen as the best player in the world Rivaldo son Rivaldinho, scored the equalizer. The situation was examined for a long time for a possible offside, but the goal was accepted.
The Romanians scored the winning goal Mihai Popescu in the 82nd minute.
– The game was a bit confusing. In the first half, neither was very good. In the second half, we got a good start and the lead goal, but after that we let the opponent put pressure on us unnecessarily and conceded two goals that were too easy, Toivio said.
– I also want to say that it was really hot and humid to play, the temperature was somewhere around thirty.
There are some interesting names in the Romanian champion Farul Constanta’s team. The team is coached by a player legend Gheorghe Hagi and Rivaldo’s son runs on the field, among others. However, according to Toivio, the team is nothing special.
– We have a very good chance to win at home and go on. They are defensively vulnerable. We have to be much better with the ball. We lost too many balls today.
The second leg will be played on Thursday next week in Helsinki. The winner of the match pair advances to the Conference League group stage, the European games of the loser end.