Uefa Europa Conference League first qualifying round, second leg
Crusaders 1 Haka 0 (agg: 3-2)
CRUSADERS’ European dream lives on as Paul Heatley scored the only goal of Thursday's second leg against Haka of Finland to put the north Belfast side through 3-2 on aggregate.
The win means the Crues now play Rosenborg of Norway in round two, with the first leg to be played at Seaview next Thursday.
The opening period of the game was all about pressure from the home side. Whereas the Finns struggled to get up to speed, Stephen Baxter’s charges wasted little time making an impact, Heatley and Ross Clarke having success down either flank and Adam Lecky dominating in the air. However, this pressure was not turned into an avalanche of chances.
The first fell the way of Lecky. A free-kick from the right by way of Clarke reached the head of the tall striker, however he could only manage to flick the ball on and in doing so took the ball away from the on-charging Daniel Larmour behind.
Haka appeared to intently up their fighting spirit from last week, with a number of tough challenges in an attempt to unsettle the hosts; Crues captain BJ Burns was unfortunate to be on the receiving end of most.
The visitors finally threatened four minutes before the break. A free-kick from the left made its way to the back post where Logan Rogerson managed to get an effort away, but the excellent Larmour made a timely challenge to clear.
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Jordan Forsythe then had a header sail just over a minute later as neither side broke the deadlock at the whistle.
The second half began much the way as the first, with the hosts seemingly even more intent on scoring the opener, and they created a raft of chances in the opening 15 minutes.
First, Philip Lowry chased onto a Heatley through ball but, despite beating the keeper with his effort a defender chased back to clear from the line.
On 57 minutes, Heatley came closest to finding the net, the winger smashing the ball off the left upright from 12 yards, and just a minute later he could only blaze over from the same location.
But Heatley never gives up and he got his reward on 73 minutes. Hesitation by defender Anthony Herbert was punished by the veteran as he pinched the ball and raced in on goal before lifting it over the advancing keeper Aatu Hakala into the net to make it 1-0.
As time ran out Haka were limited to long-range efforts that could only trouble the Shore Road traffic behind the goal.
Crusaders J.Tuffey, BJ.Burns (J.Winchester 64’), P.Lowry, B.Kennedy (J.Callacher 90’), A.Lecky (J.Owens 64’), J.Forsythe, J.O’Rourke, D.Larmour, P.Heatley, R.McKeown, R.Clarke (R.Weir 84’)
Haka A.Hakala, N.Friberg, E.Auvinen, A.Sihvonen, O.Whyte (F.Ndiaye 82’), J.Lescano, S.Zarokostas, L.Rogerson (H.Bah-Traore 76’), T.Purme, R.Mahuta (T.Fofana 82’), A.Herbert (H.Malundama 76’)
