Leesiders grab away draw in Sweden

Djurgarden 1 Cork 1

Cork City grabbed a valuable away goal as they held Djurgarden to a draw in the opening leg of their UEFA Cup second qualifying round clash in Stockholm.

The Rebels made a flying start at the Rasunda Stadium with former Tottenham striker Neale Fenn giving his side a surprise lead after just eight minutes.

But the Swedish hosts came back strong late in the second half with substitute Patrick Amoah’s strike 10 minutes from time giving Djurgarden hope.

There was already a subdued atmosphere in Sweden’s national arena with fewer than 5,000 fans in attendance.

And, within 10 minutes, the sparse crowd had fallen completely silent when Fenn scored the opener for Cork with a speculative shot which somehow found its way past Dembo Touray in the Djurgarden goal.

It took 35 minutes for the home side to recover from the shock, but Mattias Jonson eventually brought his side to life with a header which skimmed the Cork bar.

Yet minutes later, Cork came close to causing a further upset with Touray forced to make a finger-tip save from Liam Kearney’s close-range effort.

A half-time grilling from coach Kjell Jonevret appeared to have had little effect on Djurgarden’s players, who were still struggling to find their rhythm and looking increasingly frustrated against a mean Cork defence.

Cork keeper Michael Devine denied Kari Arnason an equaliser for the Swedes with a stunning 73rd-minute save.

But, with the visitors beginning to tire, Djurgarden finally found the breakthrough they had been looking for.

Amoah tried his luck with a shot which first took a deflection off a Cork defender before also touching Devine and rolling into the net.

Djurgarden then came close to snatching a late win but Devine pulled off another fine stop on the line from Tobias Hysen’s teasing strike to ensure that the return leg in two weeks’ time will be a tense affair.