BK Hacken 1
Cork City 1
IT’S ALL TO play in the Europa League after Cork City drew 1-1 with BK Hacken of Sweden in the away leg of their second qualifying round at Gotheburg’s Bravida Arena.
Striker Sean Maguire scored from the spot just after the hour-mark tonight, but, despite going down to ten men, the home side hit back through Nigerian international John Owoeri.
The Leesiders, currently second in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, earned their place in the tie thanks to a 2-1 aggregate victory over Linfield earlier this month and they went into the game unbeaten in ten matches in all competitions after the recent 1-0 win away to Wexford Youths.
Former St Patrick’s Athletic pair Kenny Browne and Greg Bolger were injury doubts this week, but both got the nod in John Caulfield’s starting XI.
Maguire had the ball in the back of the net in the opening minutes, but the goal was disallowed for offside. On 19 minutes, Alan Bennett got his header on target and goalkeeper Peter Abrahamsson collected on the second attempt.
Greg Bolger also struck wide, while Rasmus Schuller called Mark McNulty into action down the other end. Cork continued to threaten with Gearoid Morrissey firing straight at Hacken’s goalkeeper and Maguire seeing his attempt go wide.
The game was 62 minutes old when the visitors were awarded a penalty. Ghanaian defender Baba Mensah brought down Stephen Dooley and was shown a straight red card.
Maguire stepped up to coolly slot his spot-kick down the middle for his third European goal of the season.
However, the numerical disadvantage didn’t hinder Hacken and they were back on level terms on 82 minutes. McNulty parried a free-kick and Owoeri followed up to make it 1-1.
The return tie at Turner’s Cross is this day next week.
BK HACKEN: Abrahamsson, Mensah, Wahlstrom, Sudic, Arkivuo (Binaku 78), Gustafsson, Schuller, Ericsson (Savage 57), Mohammed (J Andersson 66), Owoeri, Paulinho.
CORK CITY: McNulty, McSweeney, Browne, Bennett, O’Connor, Morrissey, Buckley (O’Sullivan 85), Bolger, Beattie (Sheppard 75), Maguire (Healy 90), Dooley.
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