Football | Pyry Soiri, well-known from Huhkaj, warns of HJK’s next Euro opposition: “It’s a team that can’t be allowed to flow”

Helsinki The football club’s next European opponent, Silkeborg IF, is a particularly familiar club winger Pursue Soir.

Soiri, 27, faced Silkeborg many times while playing for Danish side Esbjerg fB from 2019 to 2021. Before that, however, he was becoming Silkeborg’s man.

“OI is moving there. I was with them at one training camp when I was still playing in Belarus,” says Soiri, recalling the events of the beginning of 2018.

“However, the clubs could not agree on the price, and I went back there to Belarus. A couple of years after that, I ended up in Esbjerg in Denmark.”

The winger, known from Huuhkaj, played with Esbjerg first in the Superliga and then in the 1st division lower down the league ladder. Silkeborg was at the same league level in both seasons.

“It’s a ball control team that has been together for quite a long time, so those players know each other well. It’s been a longer project like that,” says Soiri.

“They have done well in recent years.”

“

“OI is moving there. I was at the same training camp with them.”

On the rise in the following season, Silkeborg finished third in the Superliga, which brought the team a direct place in the playoff round of the Europa League qualifiers.

Both HJK’s and Silkeborg’s season will certainly continue in the autumn group stage, as the winner of the pair of matches advances to the Europa League and the loser to the Conference League. HJK sealed their place in the group on Thursday by defeating NK Maribor.

Read more: HJK took a win worth millions of euros and advanced to the group stage: “One can’t help but be satisfied”

“It was really important for us that we got a place in the Conference League,” says Soiri.

According to Soir, the dream, i.e. a place in the Europa League, will be behind hard work, but Silkeborg is beatable, as the intact Maribor games showed.

“We have to do the same against Silkeborg. It’s a team that can’t be allowed to flow, because they’re really good with the ball.”

Soiri sees that HJK only has something to win in the pair of matches. A challenge is good, but great at the same time.

“Anyway, it’s great that the European Games are coming to Finland in the fall. I prefer Europa League matches.”

“

“It’s the kind of team that can’t be allowed to flow.”

Europeans are a rare treat for Silkeborg, who have sailed between the Superliga and the 1st division in recent seasons. It’s been 21 years since the last time.

The team qualified for the Uefa Cup, the predecessor of the Europa League, in the summer of 2001, but lost to the Spanish Real Zaragoza in the first round with a total of 1–5 goals.

Silkeborg’s best achievement on the Eurocourts is winning the Intertoto Cup in 1996 together with French En Avant Guingamp and German Karlsruher SC.

For HJK, European games are routine, and the group stage places are also allowed to be expected in the future thanks to the Conference League that started last season.

“It’s really important to win the Veikkausliiga, because it gives you a much bigger chance to succeed in the Euro arenas,” says Soiri, referring to the qualification system.

The Finnish champion’s European games start from the first qualifying round of the Champions League, and winning a pair of matches offers three “match balls” to the group stage.

“

“It’s really important to win the Veikkausliiga.”

HJK has played itself into a position where the season can be considered successful after a place in the group stage and the championship. The first of the goals has now been achieved.

“The players’ focus is to win that as well, because it will improve our conditions next year. We focus on winning the championship one game at a time,” says Soiri.

“There are good contenders this year. We have a really wide circle and team, and there is a lot of quality. The Veikkausliiga is at least as important a goal.”