The New Saints will aim to overcome a two-goal deficit at Park Hall next week after losing 3-1 away at Swedish side BK Häcken in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League first qualifying round tie.
Craig Harrison’s side conceded twice in the opening 13 minutes before Declan McManus pulled a goal back, only for the hosts to add a third goal before half-time.
BK Häcken are mid-season and currently third in the Swedish Allsvenskan, but were missing exciting young forward Bénie Traore. Meanwhile, Ryan Brobbel was a surprise omission from TNS’ starting XI as Harrison aimed to keep things tight with a three-man defence.
However, it took just seven minutes for Häcken to open the scoring. Ibrahim Sadiq saw a low driven pass blocked by Danny Davies, but the ball rebounded back to the Ghanaian winger who found the net on the volley.
Connor Roberts got down low to deny Filip Trpchevski doubling the lead less than two minutes later, but the hosts did grab a second goal in the 13th minute when Mikkel Rygaard turned in Kristoffer Lund’s cross.
Häcken continued to pile on the pressure but TNS began to create openings of their own, as Ryan Astles headed wide from a free-kick and Danny Redmond stung the palms of opposition goalkeeper Peter Abrahamsson with a strike from range.
An away goal arrived with 32 minutes on the clock when Jordan Williams got the better of Simon Sandberg down the left hand side and delivered a perfect cross for Declan McManus to coolly head home in the middle.
It was a first UEFA Champions League goal for the prolific Scottish striker, but TNS’ celebrations were short lived as just five minutes later Häcken scored again.
It came from a set-piece situation as former Norway international Even Hovland glanced a header home from Samuel Gustafson’s free-kick and the goal stood despite a lengthy VAR check for offside.
No more goals came in the second half, but that was largely down to the impressive display from Roberts in the TNS goal. The Cymru C international prevented Astles from turning into his own net early in the second period, but he really came into his own in the eight minutes of stoppage time.
After keeping out Hovland’s powerful header from a corner, Roberts produced two fine stops in the space of seven seconds to deny substitute Franklin Tebo on both occasions. In total, the ‘keeper made six saves – no one in this week’s UEFA Champions League first qualifying round first legs made more.
But TNS will now need inspiration at the other end of the pitch as they have work to do in the second leg at Park Hall next Tuesday, which kicks off at 7pm.
The winner of the tie will face the winner of the clash between KÍ Klaksvík from the Faroe Islands and Hungarian side Ferencváros. That finished goalless in the first leg on Tuesday night.
The loser will meet the loser of the tie between Slovakia’s Slovan Bratislava and Swift Hesper of Luxembourg in the UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round. Those two teams drew 1-1 in their first leg on Wednesday.
