Europa League Report: Cork City 1 - 0 Hacken (Cork win 2-1 on agg)

Kevin O’Connor’s strike on 26 minutes helped Cork City to a historic victory against BK Hacken on Thursday night in a wet Turner’s Cross in front of 5,336 spectators.

The victory will give the club a whopping €220,000 in the coffers on top of what was already earned after defeating Linfield in the previous round.

Cork City went with the same 11 that secured the draw in Gothenburg last Thursday night while the visitors to Turner’s Cross made two changes with Martin Ericsson and the suspended Baba Mensah being replaced by Joel Anderson and Mohammed Abubakari.

The visitors were the slight favourites before the game kicked off and had the better of the opening 20 minutes with Mark McNulty having to save a John Oweri shot from 10 yards as City were guilty of sloppy passing all over the field. Minutes later Garry Buckley was guilty of a poor pass and Mohammed Naisiru saw his shot from close range well saved by McNulty.

Alan Bennett making a record 24^th appearance for CCork City in Europe was next to their rescue when he cleared off the line from Paulinho after being played in by the industrious Oweri.

Yet completely against the run of play on 26 minutes, Cork City went ahead. Kevin O’Connor was fouled on the edge of the box by Joel Anderson and up stepped Greg Bolger to hit a free to the front of the box where O’Connor fired first time with his left leg past Peter Abrahamsson with the aid of a deflection; cue wild celebrations in all four stands of the ground.

But Hacken were not going to go out of this European tie without a fight and they nearly on an equal footing when Paulinho rose highest but Stephen Dooley was in the right place on the line to head clear the danger.

The remainder of the half didn’t see much in the way of goalmouth action with the ball staying mainly in the middle of the park on a surface that was holding up very well against the rain that lashed down on it.

Garry Buckley was lucky not to go into the referee’s book when his heavy tackle on Naisru Mohammed went unpunished on 42 minutes. Unfortunately for the Hacken player it spelled the end of his night as he had to be replaced for Demba Savage resulting in six minutes of added time.

The second half was dominated by Hacken but the City’s rearguard put up some stern resistance and was not going to be beaten despite the best attempts of the Swedish team.

Dooley was one of City’s main attacking threats throughout the entire game with his mazy dribbles creating the best chance of the second half for City on 72 minutes to extend the lead as he set up Morrissey but Abrahamson was equal to the effort.

At the other end of the field Oweri scorer of the equaliser had a few shots well saved by McNulty while Paulinho also had efforts well stopped by the City netminder.

Alan Bennett and Kenny Browne cleared a mountain of ball in the second half and try as Hacken might it just wasn’t good enough as City emerge victorious on a 2-1 aggregate score line to ensure they will play Genk or Buducnost Podgorica next week.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Michael McSweeney, Kenny Browne, Alan Bennett, Kevin O’Connor; Greg Bolger, Gearóid Morrissey (Gavan Holohan 78); Steven Beattie, Garry Buckley, Stephen Dooley; Sean Maguire (Mark O’Sullivan 90).

Subs not used: Matthew Connor, Colin Healy, Karl Sheppard, Mark O’Sullivan, Ian Turner

Yellow Cards: Beattie (58), Browne (72), Buckley (93)

Red Cards: None

BK Hacken: Peter Abrahamsson; Joel Anderson, Emil Wahlstrom, Jasmin Sudic, Kari Arkivio; Mohammed Abubakari; Nasiru Mohammed (Demba Savage 45. Inj.), Rasmus Schuller (Martin Ericssom 64), Samuel Gustafson, Paulinho; John Owoeri (Alexander Jeremjeff 73).

Subs not used: Tefu Mashamite, Alexander Jeremjeff, Gustav Berggren, Egzon Binaku, Christoffer Kallqvist

Yellow Cards: Paulinho (62)

Red Cards: None

Referee: Carlos Miguel Taborda Xistra (Portugal)

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Kevin O’Connor(Cork City)

Attendance: 5,336