A 40th-minute goal from Jari Niemi was enough to see Tampere United through to the third qualifying round of the European Champions League on Tuesday night, securing a 1-0 win in the Bulgarian capital against Levski Sofia.
TamU won the first leg at home by the only goal and so progressed 2-0 on aggregate.
The win was quite a feather in the cap for coach Ari Hjelm and his team, as Levski Sofia were in the group stages of the ECL last year and were strongly fancied to overturn the 1-0 deficit at home.
Aside from Niemi's clinical strike from 12 yards, which was set up by a nicely flighted cross from Tomi Petrescu after a free-kick, TamU can thank their goalkeeper Mikko Kavén, who had a busy night and pulled off several fine saves as Levski dominated for long periods without being able to put the ball in the net.
The Tampere side will now play either Rosenborg BK of Norway or FC Astana from Kazakhstan. The Norwegians are the most likely opponents as they take a 3-1 advantage into their home second leg tonight.
TamU have never reached the third qualifying round before, but will naturally be hoping to go a step further to land themselves a place the lucrative group stages of the competition. Thus far only one Finnish club has performed this feat, HJK Helsinki in the 1998/99 season.
The two 3rd round qualifying games will be played between the 14th and 29th of this month.
