Hero Taipale sinks Swiss

An 86th-minute goal from Tero Taipale secured Finnish outfit Myllykosken Pallo-47 an unexpected 2-2 draw away to BSC Young Boys and a place in the UEFA Cup first round as 5-4 aggregate winners. The result provided Finnish representatives with their first victory against Swiss opposition in UEFA competitions at the fourth time of asking.

Inexperience proves costly
Undoubtedly Young Boys suffered from their inexperience on the international stage as they struggled to convert their many scoring chances on the night, although veteran striker Stéphane Chapuisat was particularly guilty for some misses that were to prove costly.

Bright start
In what was their first UEFA competition match in a decade, the Bernese side set about their Finnish opponents with some purpose with Gürkan Sermeter and Joël Descloux providing excellent service from the flanks. Indeed, Descloux, Ivan Knez and Chapuisat all had decent scoring chances in the opening minutes before Sermeter fired the Swiss side into the lead in the 25th minute following a free-kick from 20 metres that was slightly deflected en route to goal.

Missed chances
Further misses from Sermeter, Chapuisat and Joël Magnin would prove costly while the Finnish side offered little in attack during the opening 45 minutes.

MyPa level
It would prove to be a story of two halves as the introduction of Luiz António for Denis Volodin provided MyPa with the added guile in attack to upset the Swiss. The Brazilian escaped the attentions of two defenders to shoot the Finnish side level after 71 minutes.

Second for Sermeter
Young Boys took just six minutes to score again, however, Sermeter chalking up his second goal of the night from the edge of the area to put the Swiss club within a whisker of the first round, as they now led on away goals. But Taipale had other ideas, Taipale silencing the 7,264-strong crowd with the decisive strike four minutes from time.