F.C. Copenhagen advance after thriller in Jerusalem

09/08 2007 16:00

On Tuesday 7th August F.C. Copenhagen played the second leg of the 2nd qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League Group Stage. In last weeks game in Copenhagen the home team won 1-0, and after 90 minutes of the return leg in Jerusalem, the same score was to be seen on the scoreboard.

By Jan Eliassen
That meant the score was tied at 1-1. After just seven minutes of play in the extra time, Swedish International, Marcus Allbäck, scored for Copenhagen - a goal that turned out to be the decider and give F.C. Copenhagen a 2-1 aggregate victory.

The game in Jerusalem started out at a slow pace, but with F.C. Copenhagen creating most of the chances in the first 25 minutes. Beitar also had their chances, but the Copenhagen defence didn't allow the Israeli's to come really close and after 45 minutes the score was 0-0.

After the break F.C. Copenhagen thought they had won a penalty when Allbäck was brought down, but instead of the penalty a free kick was given to Beitar. Copenhagen seemed to be in control, until a fine Israeli attack was rewarded with a goal. Idan Tal played a perfect pass to Baruchyan who rounded Niclas Jensen and passed the ball to Itzhaki - and then the scoreboard read 1-0.

Inspired by the goal and the noisy crowd, Beitar pressed forward seeking the 2-0 goal, the win and a trip to Portugal in the 3rd qualifying round. The Israeli's came close on several occasions, but some fine Danish defending and some brilliant goalkeeping from Jesper Christiansen send the game into extra time.

And then the goal came! A fine combination between Silberbauer and Grønkjær, resulted in a pass into the box where Marcus Allbäck could score his 2nd goal of this years tournament and make it 1-1. This meant that Beitar had to win 3-1 if they were to advance to the 3rd qualifying round.

After 120 minutes of play the Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli finally blew the whistle.

With the 2-1 aggregate victory in hand; F.C. Copenhagen can now start focus on the next match in the UEFA Champions League qualification, the 3rd qualifying round and the two games against Portuguese giants SL Benfica.

F.C. Copenhagen will play Benfica in Lissabon on 14th August (kick-off at 2115 CET). The return leg is in PARKEN on 29 August (kick-off at 2045 CET).