Comeback gives BATE control
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Article summary
FH Hafnarfjördur 1-3 FC BATE Borisov The Belarussian visitors recovered from conceding an early goal to return from Iceland with the edge in the tie.
Article body
FC BATE Borisov recovered from conceding an early goal to FH Hafnarfjördur to return to Belarus with a two-goal UEFA Champions League second qualifying round lead after the first leg in Iceland.
Lead short-lived
The match was only three minutes old when the home side went ahead - Matthías Vilhjálmsson the man on target. The lead lasted just 15 minutes before Dmitri Likhtarovich pounced when Hafnarfjördur defender Gudmundur Sævarsson could only block the ball on the goalline. In the second half the visitors continued to press and just five minutes in Vitali Radzionov put BATE into the lead with an opportunist effort.
'Unhappy' coach
Hafnarfjördur were now forced to push forward but that left room at the back and Gennadi Bliznyuk swiftly took advantage of the space to extend the lead and leave BATE in command ahead of next Wednesday's return. Home coach Ólafur Jóhannesson said: "I am rather unhappy about this, we will not get good results playing like we did. The first half was not good on our part and we didn't create too much after the goal when we should have played with more spirit rather then dropping into defence. [Next week] I will play my best team. I will not rest any players and we will go over there with optimism."
