UEFA Cup: Ready for the group stage

In the second leg of the Round 1, FC Moscow proved a much sturdier opponent than they had been at home two weeks ago when F.C. Copenhagen beat them 2-1. However, F.C. Copenhagen fought home a well-deserved draw and thus, for the third year running, the Lions have qualified for the group stage in a UEFA tournament.

By Lars Kristensen

F.C. Copenhagen began well, creating many chanced in the opening 30 minutes. Late in the first half however, FC Moscow opened up the scoring with a somewhat undeserved goal according to the run of play. The quality of play deteriorated on both sides in the second half but luck sided with the Lions when the Muscovites produced an own goal and, and based on hard work and sheer determination, the F.C. Copenhagen players pulled through in the end.

Danish International, Ulrik Laursen

- I do not think we were lucky to make it through because in the first half we really should have scored at least once. I only looked at the clock when we had to minutes left to play and from then on, we all just focused on blocking their attack. It is not the first time that I have had to focus on defence in order to progress, but when you succeed like we did today it is always fun to do so.

Czech International, Libor Sionko

- FC Moscow demonstrated once again that they are a much better team playing away than at home but we kept our cool and played well too. Overall, I think we deserved to progress and now we can all look forward to at least four more great games on the European scene.

Danish International, William Kvist

- We are very excited about making it to the group stage and, personally, I would not mind playing against a really big team like perhaps Milan. Anyway, our goal this fall must be to improve on last year’s performance and progress to the knockout stages.

The draw for the UEFA Cup group stage will take place at 12.00 CET on Tuesday October 7. As the fourth seed, F.C. Copenhagen will enter a group of five playing two games at home and two away from late October until late December with the top three qualifying for the knockout stages in the spring.

Game stats:

F.C. Copenhagen – FC Moscow 1-1

0-1 Bracamonte (37)

1-1 Shesnukov (own goal, 54)

Spectators: 18.333

Aggregate: F.C. Copenhagen wins 3-2