We're in the UEFA Cup

As of writing this, when I Google for articles on tonight's game vs Lens, zero (0) turns up. I can't have that so here we go: The FC København vs RC Lens UEFA Cup qualification game from the perspective of a Copenhagener.

Buying the ticket I felt realistically hopeful we'd progress. Drawing 1-1 at home in the first of two games like these is hard to turn around for a aggregate win; it's only happens about 1 in 5 times. (Which is not the same thing as saying FC København had 4 in 5 chance of progress like the Danish newspaper B.T. incompetently did.)

It was a rainy evening in Copenhagen and the pitch was unpredictable and fast. The referee soon proved to be about the same quality as the pitch. Not the best conditions but ok.

Just a quarter of an hour into the game Lens' Eric Carriere took advantage of a loose ball and put the guests ahead. The home side atmosphere dropped somewhat but both audience and players kept it going. Quite a few chances were missed in both ends of the stadium.

Outstanding performances were pulled by Libor Sionko and Jesper Christiansen among others. The former thanking the coach by fielding him in the starting 11 by being a constant threat to Lens' left side, a physical and technical feat on a very large part of the pitch; the latter by performing a handful of world class saves.

Then with a quarter of an hour to go Marcus Allbäck leveled the score when it was the French defense who were taking a little nap. Symptomatic of a close and very professional game. People in the stand went nuts.

Five minutes into the overtime Michael Gravgaard had to risk everything to stop a Lens attack but got the man in stead of the ball and was correctly sent off. This provoked the international debut of 17 year old Mattias 'Zanka' Jørgensen (he already did five minutes of Danish Cup and 15 minutes of Danish league time). And boy did he do well! Applause for Zanka!

But the following minutes turned into some kind of nightmare with Lens trying to finish off Copenhagen. Then Libor Sionko led a counter attack and was run over in the Lens penalty area. The resulting penalty kick was taken advantage of by Jesper Grønkjær, FC København had one leg in the UEFA Cup group phase and the stands were in ecstasy.

I had been thinking 200 Dkr for the ticket to a game against "some French team" was a little expensive. As far as I remember, it was cheaper when we beat Lazio? But let's just say this one was worth it all. Whew!