Elfsborg and Standard share the spoils

IF Elfsborg and R. Standard de Liège got off the mark in Group C as the two teams played out a 1-1 draw in Boras.

After suffering opening-day defeats, both sides were keen to pick up their first points of the campaign. Viktor Claesson's curler put the hosts ahead midway through the first half, before Geoffrey Mujangi Bia volleyed in to level with 28 minutes to go.

Coach Klas Ingesson was making his debut in the Elfsborg dugout, and the former Swedish international saw his side take immediate control of proceedings. A minute into the contest, Lasse Nilsson unleashed a low volley that Standard keeper Eiji Kawashima did well to keep out at the near post.

Elfsborg kept pushing on. Captain Anders Svensson tried his luck from distance several times without success, but the Swedes eventually broke the deadlock from a 23rd-minute corner. Stefan Ishizaki rolled the ball back for Claesson, who curled a shot into the top corner of the visitors' goal. Ishizaki then went close himself on the cusp of half-time, with a long-range effort that Kawashima just about managed to control.

In the second half, Elfsborg took their foot off the accelerator and Standard made them pay for it. With 62 minutes gone, Imoh Ezekiel timed his run perfectly to collect a long through ball, crossed perfectly from the left, and Mujangi Bia gleefully volleyed an equaliser past keeper Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard.

Elfsborg next host Esbjerg fB on 24 October, while Standard travel to group leaders FC Salzburg.