Football | A pint on the neck of a Klubi player and then a cold shower on the other end – Great fight from the Klubi

HJK–Eintracht Frankfurt 0–1

HJK played a great game against the big German club Eintracht Frankfurt, but ended up losing 0–1 in the second home game of the Conference League.

“Good match. Every dude can be proud. In the end we were damn strong”, Top Middle said after the match.

“There were places to nail the levels, but maybe it showed that others pay millions.”

Keskinen speculated on whether his second-half goal was offside.

“We played so well that I don’t feel like saying anything negative.”

After the match, Keskinen had changed his shirt to Frankfurt’s top goalkeeper by Kevin Trapp with.

“Yeah, it was my Fifa shop [konsolipelissä]. It was damn good now, I had to take a shirt.”

Rarely it can be seen that a pint thrown at the neck of a Klubi player becomes one of the turning points of the match. After two thirds of the opening period had been played, someone from the Eintracht supporters’ end threw a pint at the corner kicker Santeri Hostikan to the neck.

The game was stopped for more than two minutes when the referee threw a pint at the delegate. The announcer warned that the referee might stop the match if objects were still thrown from the stands.

HJK gave their corner kick, but soon after that, the home team’s concentration faltered. Eintracht saw that HJK’s pack was spread out, and the away team struck when they got space.

Eintracht got into a quick attack which Fares Chaibi finished with a dream shot from the corner of the penalty area. The ball sank into the top back corner of the goal.

Eintracht’s the opening goal was the first goal scored by a German club in Eurocup matches at HJK’s home ground since 1975, when HJK played Hertha Berlin in between. In 48 years, HJK had kept Dynamo Dresden, Kaiserslautern and Schalke clean.

It usually takes half of the opening period for the away teams of Eurocups to get used to the artificial turf in Töölö. This time the home advantage was enough for just under ten minutes.

Returned to HJK’s goal in the first ten minutes Niki Mäenpää made a triple save in a corner kick situation. Then the topper Aapo Halme blocked a shot in the next attack, and Mäenpää blocked at the quarter Aurélio Butan from the front post of the company.

HJK structured the game with calm short passes down low and then tried to speed up the attacks from the central area. However, too often HJK lost the ball right after a few passes.

Taking HJK’s attacks into goal-scoring positions was lacking in the opening period. HJK had only one scoring attempt in the opening period, when Topi Keskinen deflected the ball to HJK, and after a sideline throw, HJK created a scoring chance Matti Peltolabut his shot was blocked.

Another the beginning of the period was dominated by Eintracht. In the 54th minute, Chaibi was close to scoring his second goal, but Mäenpää kept the goal clean.

At the hour mark, the game started to turn for HJK. The home team increased the pressing level, won duels and was able to take the game deep and into the goal posts. Topi Keskinen was close to equalizing, but the attempt stopped at Kevin Trapp.

The head coach Toni Korkeakunnas was happy with how the game plan worked.

“It worked as well as it can work against a top German team. I think we succeeded really well. I was talking about that faith and passion. We managed really well. The plan worked,” said Korkeakunnas.

“In some situations we could have been more straightforward. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the boys. Great joy and pride, that’s how it feels.”

Then at the 70th minute mark Miro Tenho headed the ball into the goal after the free kick, but HJK had committed a foul in the situation, and the equalizer was not created.

In extra time Roope Risk tried a dizzying volley shot at the goal, but a great shot missed by a long way. And then Kevin Kouassivi-Benissan forced Trapp to save the ball for a corner.

HJK played such a good second period that they deserved their equalizer. The result was another home defeat in the Conference League.