The first meeting between the teams at Tele2 Arena in Stockholm was won by Hammarby 3-1 after a hat trick by Astrit Selmani. This meant that Bajen could afford in advance to lose with the odd goal in tonight’s return meeting in Maribor and still advance in the Europa Conference League qualifiers.
It also started really well for Hammarby, when David Accam gave the green and whites the lead already after five minutes of play through a quick counterattack.
Maribor’s first really hot goal chance came a few minutes before the break, when they hit the crossbar with a shot from outside the penalty area. In the run-up to the second half, Maribor then had another rib shot.
In the second half, Maribor created more hot chances to create life in the double encounter, but 19-year-old Oliver Dovin was still able to secure his goal, Bajen held off and won 1-0, a total of 4-1 over the double encounter.
In the next qualifying round, Hammarby will face Cukaricki from Belgrade, Serbia, who beat Sumgait from Azerbaijan earlier tonight. The first meeting ended 0-0, but Cukaricki won the return match away. Last season, Cukaricki finished third in the Serbian top league. Should Hammarby beat Cukaricki, a playoff qualifier is also expected before they are ready for the group stage in the Europa Conference League.
The next match for Hammarby will be played on Sunday away against Östersund in the Allsvenskan.
Maribors starting eleven: South – Milec, Mitrovic, Voloder, Koderman – Pihler, Vrhovec, Repas – Sturm, Alvir, Vancas.
Hammarby’s starting eleven: Dovin – Paulsen, Fenger, Fjóluson, Jeahze – Andersen, Bojanoc, Sher – Ludwigson, Selmani, Accam.
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