FC Honka dodge a bullet in Spain, but still have plenty to do

Real Racing Club Santander 1 - FC Honka 0, UEFA Cup 1st Round

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FC Honka of Espoo, Finland’s single remaining team in European football this season, were beaten by the only goal of the match on their visit to Real Racing Club Santander of Spain.
      The goal came just before the hour, when Jonathan Pereira got on the end of a pass from Juanjo and lobbed the ball over the advancing Honka goalkeeper Tuomas Peltonen.
     
Considering that in their previous game Racing Santander had held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou, the visiting side can consider their trip a job well done, but without some heroics from Peltonen and timely interventions from defenders’ legs close to the line, it could have been a lot worse.
      The fact that the 19,000 crowd in Cantabria whistled noisily at the hosts at the end of the match suggests that the Racing fans had expected more firepower from a side that finished 6th in La Liga last year, playing against “nobodies from Finland”.
     
In any event, Honka coach Mika Lehkosuo’s charges still have everything to play for when they entertain Racing in the Finnair Stadium in Helsinki on October 2nd.
      They will nevertheless need to win by two clear goals to progress, and at least on Thursday’s showing this may be a big ask.
      In the first half, the visitors did not get a shot on goal, while Santander set up a string of attacks that all seemed to culminate in a diagonal pass back for someone to shoot from distance.
     
Honka’s reward, if they can overcome Racing Santander, will be well worth having.
      The 40 teams that progress from the 1st round proper of the competition go into a group stage. This comprises eight groups of five, with each side playing four matches, two at home and two away. The winners, runners-up and third-placed teams from each group will then advance to the last 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed clubs from the UEFA Champions League groups, and the competition continues on a knock-out basis.
      In other words, whichever team wins through on October 2nd is guaranteed two more potentially quite lucrative home games, plus revenue from UEFA in the form of a share-out of the monies it receives from television and sponsorship contracts.
     
Honka are currently lying 2nd in the table in the Finnish Veikkaus League, with six matches still to be played.
      Three days after their game against Racing, they will travel to Turku for a key fixture against top-of-the table FC Inter.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Honka draw Racing de Santander in UEFA Cup 1st round (29.8.2008)

Links:
  FC Honka (Wikipedia)
  UEFA

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