The HJK players threw up their hands in frustration. MAURI RATILAINEN / AOP
HJK’s head coach Toni Korkeakunnas has sailed under lucky stars.
In July, he inherited from his friend Toni Koskela a fragmented and unwilling team, which had already given too much lead to its domestic rivals in the Veikkausliiga.
Koskela’s last match was a victory in the opening round of the Champions League qualification. Korkeukunas got to finalize the next place in Belfast against Larne.
After that The club has marched from victory to victory on the domestic fields. On Töölö’s artificial turf, they also defeated the tough Norwegian pack Molde, but eventually lost a pair of Euro matches in Norway.
You should not doubt the work of Korkeakunnas. He has clearly got HJK back on track. The domestic winning streak has brought it right up to the top of the league KuPS, and no one really dares to bet against the striped shirts in the championship fight.
Against that background, it is difficult to understand why HJK pressed the suicide button in a pair of matches against Qarabağ.
Korkeakunnas had clearly sent its team to shake the Azerbaijani opponent with an extremely aggressive and physical game. The plan worked perfectly.
Qarabağ, who only secured the lead by a goal, was in trouble in Töölö for the first few minutes. It didn’t get a moment’s peace with the ball.
Klubipääty literally sucked the ball behind the back of the visitors’ goalkeeper Shakhrudin Magomedaliyev, after the defenders had first cleared a couple of Bojan Radulović’s attempts from the goal line.
Topi Keskinen was able to calm his mind in the situation and pass the ball to Santeri Hostika, who enjoyed the joint goals to 2–2.
At this point, it seemed that HJK’s dream of a third consecutive Eurocup fall would inevitably come true.
However, the opposite happened. And the head coach can also bear part of the reason for that.
HJK continued with the same intensity that had brought it to the levels. Kevin Kouassivi-Benissan’s foul on Abdellah Zoubiri was worth a caution just four minutes after Hostika’s opening goal.
It could still be acknowledged as a work accident.
The story continues after the picture
Klubipääty got to celebrate Santeri Hostika’s opening goal. MAURI RATILAINEN / AOP
But if the same man falls into an equally egregious mistake just over a minute later, there is a problem either in understanding the message or in the fact that it was not conveyed at all.
In any case, the foul on Kouassivi-Benissan’s Elvin Jafarguliyev was also clearly worthy of a yellow card. French referee Willy Delajod had no choice but to send the Finn off the field.
In the process he sentenced HJK out of the Europa League.
The saddest part of all this is that Qarabağ was indeed a beatable bunch. But it’s not so weak that HJK would knock it down with at least two goals if it plays less than 75 minutes.
The Azerbaijani team braked to a 2–1 away win in Töölö and will continue the Europa League qualifiers with 4–2 on aggregate, while the Club’s fate is to use the last Euro reserve cartridge, i.e. the Conference League qualifier.
Farul Constanza from Romania, who based on his home country, is certainly at least as tough an opponent as Qarabağ.
It would be great the temptation puts the entire loss on the neck of Kouassivi-Benissan, who got a stupid exit. The 24-year-old guy surely knows that he made a huge mistake.
But should the head coach have been able to calm the players’ minds at the point when the situation in total goals was tied at 2–2 and the solution would be seen on their own home field?
– Chatting is always fun afterwards. Fut is lived with emotion. At least I feel that the fouls should be tough if you give a red after 16 minutes, conker Jukka Raitala said.
– A sad story for Kevin. This is how futs is sometimes.
Koskela’s coaching style and ability to handle individuals can be discussed. It is indisputable that he led the Club to three consecutive league championships and twice to the group stage of the Eurocups.
Korkeakunnas now has one match ball left in Europe.
– I have heard the opponent’s name and I know the target country, Korkeakunnas admitted.
Thursday’s loss also correlates to the Veikkausliiga, where the value of the Inter-match waiting on Sunday now increased many times.
– Let’s learn from it. Of course, we will do everything we can to clear our last chance. And before that, we still have to clear the important three points for the championship.