Cork City 1 (2)
BK Hacken 0 (1)
Paul Dollery reports from Turner’s Cross
KEVIN O’CONNOR’S DEFLECTED volley in the first half was enough to seal a lucrative place in the third qualifying round of the Europa League for Cork City tonight in front of a crowd of 5,336 at Turner’s Cross.
With the help of a deflection, O’Connor fired home from Greg Bolger’s free-kick to give his side a 1-0 win on the night — 2-1 on aggregate — against Swedish Cup holders BK Hacken, who could only manage a 1-1 draw with the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division side seven days ago.
City have now guaranteed themselves at least €630,000 worth of prize money from this season’s European campaign, having also defeated Linfield in the previous round.
Next up is a meeting over two legs with Belgian side Genk, who needed a penalty shootout to see off Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro) following a 2-2 draw on aggregate.
City lived dangerously for the opening quarter of tonight’s game, putting themselves under pressure on several occasions after squandering possession with some sloppy play.
The visitors had three good chances to hit the front between the 15th and 20th minutes. First John Owoeri saw a shot from a narrow angle saved by Mark McNulty.
The City goalkeeper was on hand again moments later to deny Nasiru Mohammed, who really should have done better from close range — a major let-off for John Caulfield’s side.
Then Alan Bennett — who set a club record of 24 European appearances tonight — came to City’s rescue. Owoeri carved the Leesiders’ defence open when he played in Mohammed Abubakari, who beat McNulty, only for Bennett to clear the ball off the line.
City went ahead against the run of play at the end of the 25th minute when Kevin O’Connor won a free-kick down the left-hand side near the corner flag. Greg Bolger delivered the ball towards the edge of the box and O’Connor volleyed home with the assistance of a deflection off Emil Wahlstrom.
City needed to clear off the line again shortly after the half-hour mark, with Stephen Dooley in the right place at the right time following a header from a corner by Paulo De Oliveira.
Gearoid Morrissey went close with a half-volley for City after being teed up by Sean Maguire just before the break, and the hosts also had a penalty claim waved away when Bennett felt his header from a Dooley corner struck the hand of an opposing defender, but Portuguese referee Carlos Xistra didn’t agree.
As they upped their pursuit of an equaliser, Hacken enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession in the second half but they were unable to create any clear-cut chances.
Rasmus Schuller and Martin Ericsson both had efforts from distance that weren’t of any great concern to McNulty, but their best opportunity fell to Demba Savage in the 73rd minute. However, the substitute snatched at his effort and McNulty saved comfortably again.
Gearoid Morrissey had City’s best chance of the second period when he was set up by Dooley on the edge of the box, but the former Blackburn Rovers and Cambridge United midfielder’s strike produced a superb save from Hacken goalkeeper Peter Abrahamsson.
Abrahamsson went forward late on as Hacken desperately sought to keep their Europa League campaign alive, but despite having to withstand a free-kick and a corner in the fourth minute of added time, City survived to advance in what was the club’s 50th game in European competition.
They’ll travel to Belgium to take on Genk next Thursday, with the return leg scheduled for the Cross seven days later.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Michael McSweeney, Alan Bennett, Kenny Browne, Kevin O’Connor; Greg Bolger (c); Stephen Dooley, Garry Buckley, Gearoid Morrissey (Gavan Holohan, 79), Steven Beattie; Sean Maguire (Mark O’Sullivan, 90).
BK Hacken: Peter Abrahamsson; Joel Andersson, Emil Wahlstrom, Jasmin Sudic, Kari Arkivio; Mohammed Abubakari; Nasiru Mohammed (Demba Savage, 44), Rasmus Schuller (c) (Martin Ericsson, 64), Paulo De Oliveira; Samuel Gustafson; John Owoeri (Alexander Jeremjeff, 74).
Referee: Carlos Miguel Taborda Xistra (Portugal).
Well done City, great result for the league
If Cork City beat their next opponent , are they in the Champions League group stage?
Europa League group stages? No, they would be into the play off round then the group stages.
No
Yep
Maybe
Who is playing Bate Borisov – thats Champions League right?
That’s Dundalk, good news all around
No they play the winner of Wimbledon in a game of snooker I think.
Brilliant from cork. To still have two teams left in Europe is brilliant hopefully we’ll see more progress
Brilliant!
Fantastic for City. Superb support at the Cross tonight. Hard luck to Pats.. would have been great to see them join City & Dundalk.
Those Euro nights are back at the Cross! Fantastic result for City in beating a team from a league that is 28 places ahead of us in the Uefa League coefficients. Even better news is it looks like Genk are going out in the shock of the round. Going to Buducnost Podgorica sounds a lot more winnable than a team from Belgium.
Almost. Genk won 4-2 on pens. Belgium is closer.
Couple of great results for Irish teams in Europe this week. Would be great to see the money spent developing the next generation.
And Only €100k for winning the league of Ireland !
Laughable.
Joke!!
But some one has to pay for John Delengy’s 360,000 a year plus huge expenses,
He must be the biggest cowboy in Ireland. He s is able to convince the board that he ia worth more then the English and Spanish FA chiefs. I tip my hat sir!
Weren’t these the fu$#ers saying they had Cork beat before kick off?
They’re from Zlatan land. What else did you expect?
Great result, pity Pat’s didn’t do it. I’d say Turner’s Cross was hopping (like my head this morning!). Didn’t get to Iceland – the ice in my G&T was the nearest I got to it – but what a night for my beloved Lilywhites! That’s two of us still in Europe and great for the LOI. Best of luck City! :-)
City til I die!!
How the hell have Buducnost brought Genk to extra-time?
2-2 HT Extra time.
Genk playing with 10 men. Then again, Buducnost were already 2-0 up when the sending off happened.
They’ve an extra man now too
Aaaannnndddd Genk win on penos
We have as many teams through as Scotland, 1 in the champs and 1 in the europa league.
Hibs took Brondby to penalties but Hearts lost to Maltese opposition at home (the 3rd worst team left in the competition- Cork being the worst). Aberdeen looking decent this season though.
It is easy to look decent when your playing a team from Latvia! Hearts where essentially given a bye and still couldn’t get through which is worrying.
Yeah and the team that beat them was from Malta!!!
The entire prize fund for the Premier Divison and 1st division is 475k between 20 teams, Delaney almost makes that for himself that’s incredible in a very bad way. The winners of the Premier Division should be getting that at least.
Jays.. They only got €55k for runners up I the league!
Penalty shootout for Budućnost Podgorica vs Genk
live text:
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2017/matches/live/day=-5/session=2/match=2020141/index.html
Genk look through, 2 missed peno’s for Podgorica
Genk through 4-2 on penalties. Ah well.
Genk win 4-2 on penos
Fear is all this money will leave Dundalk and Cork to dominate for years.
Doubt it Keith, we’ll have to spend it on Oriel Park!
That’s not Cork or Dundalk’s fault though.
Accessing public funds, particularly capital funds, is often linked to a club’s relationship with the FAI hierarchy. In other words, no matter what happens, Shamrock Rovers and Bohs will always be taken care of.
Not necessarily rovers qualified for europa group stages in 2011 and havent won the league since.
The good news is that Cork at the very least is fan run meaning the money will be used in the best interest for the club and won’t get anywhere near the FAI greedy hands. I can’t speak for Dundalk but hopefully they follow us and keep those FAI people away.
FAI are a joke, hopefully Dundalk and Cork can keep all the money and pump into infrastructure and youth development and keep Delaney’s claw’s from it. These results should be the norm if only the FAI put some effort into running the league properly, we could be getting teams into the CL group stage especially when you see teams from Cyprus qualifying quite often.
All Delaney does is let teams in the UK develop our players so he can give himself a raise…as he feels he deserves it!
Oh don’t worry bud the loi is a merry go round. Cork will find some way to squander the money on magic beans.nothing will change. I wish it does though. I’m seeing a lot more talk of the paltry money for loi winners . Delaney needs to eff off and let someone else take over. Loi needs huge investment .
My worry is the guy before Delaney was also a crook. We need Niall Quinn.
What sort of bobs is that worth to them!
€630,000 so far.
If they win next round . Are they in the
group phase then ??
No, after the 3rd qualifying round there is the final play off round.
Genk won on penos