In 2nd leg of Europa League 2nd Qualifying round Karpaty at home handed a 3-2 defeat to Icelandic KR Reykjavik.  Just to remind, in the 1st leg in the Iceland’s capital our team has won 3-0. Now Oleh Kononov’s players will meet with Zestafoni on July 29th and August 5th. The Georgian team held the upper hand in a matchup with Slovakian Dukla Banska Bystrica – 3-0 and 0-1.

1st leg loss to Karpaty combined with poor results in the domestic league has led to Logi Olafsson being sacked. KR was brought to Lviv by the new coach Runar Kristinsson. It became apparent during pre-game training that the team from Iceland didn’t come to Lviv just for a walk. The players wanted to prove to the new coach and local fans that they can play football too.  Generally, despite another loss, they succeeded. 

As opposed to Runar Kristinsson, Oleh Kononov gave a chance to play to those players who had little practice during first three games of the season.  For instance for Vitaly Rudenko, who replaced Andriy Tlumak in goal, it was the debut in Karpaty uniform. Ivan Milosevic got paired with Yevhen Tarasenko in the center of defense. The flanks were covered by Ukraine international players Ihor Oshchypko (on the left) and Artem Fedetskyy (on the right) who have finally resolved their health issues. Danilo Avelar got to start the game in place of Samson Godwin, as Baranets brothers formed a pairing of attacking midfielders, with Kopolovets, Zenjov, and Neno playing upfront.

At the very beginning of the game Zenjov received the ball on the right flank, shifted to the middle leaving behind two defenders and literally has put Reykjavik goalkeeper on his knees by a thunderous shot – 1-0.

You can hardly expect to start a game any better than this. However, conceded goal didn’t break down guests’ fighting spirit. Within the next 15 minutes Reykjavik conducted three reasonable attacks each ending with a shot on goal and a corner.

An unpleasant moment happened on the 23rd minute, when KR attacker Gunnar Kristjansson got seriously injured and was immediately replaced by Kjartan Henry Finnbogason. The latter consequently became one of the game’s best players.  But that was much later. Right after the substitution Reykjavik conceded another goal.  Mykhaylo Kopolovets delivered a free-kick, Fedetskyy won the ball from two defenders and headed it past the goalkeeper into the corner – 2-0.

In five minutes the guests have wasted their best scoring chance of the half. Karpaty defense missed a counterattack - Gudjon Baldvinsson intercepted the ball and passed it to Oskar Hauksson. But the midfielders cross from 18 meters turned out to be too weak and Rudenko had no problems controlling it. Karpaty managed to compose a couple of nice plays before the half-time whistle.  The green and whites attack looked particularly sharp when Oshchypko passed the ball between two defenders and Zenjov, who was on the receiving end, entered the penalty box and took well-weighed shot narrowly missing top right corner.

It is unknown how exactly Runar Kristinsson addressed his players during intermission. He definitely got the response he was looking for. At first few minutes the game looked to be flowing in the same direction as in the first half. Karpaty for the most part had the ball firmly under its control, allowing a rare Reykjavik counterattacks.  Suddenly it was Kjartan Finnbogason time to star. On the 61st minute KR captain Bjarni Gudjónsson got a long ball through to his #6, and the next moment the attacker was on 1-on-1 break. Rudenko, despite being impressive all game long, was unable to prevent a goal – 2-1. Just 3 minutes later Finbogasson headed home another tally, converting aerial cross from the right flank. A 2-2 score flashed on the scoreboard. However, the game wasn’t tied for long.

In fact it took Karpaty another 3 minutes to regain its advantage. Borys Baranets managed to put strong and precise shot on goal from a long range – 3-2. In such impressive way the newcomer completed a sort of a hat-trick – celebrated his birthday, made his Karpaty debut, and scored his first goal in European competition. 

The Icelandic team had almost immediate chance to renew the balance, but this time Rudenko made a brilliant save denying header from Sigurdsson. On the 78th minute the ball ended up in Karpaty net once again, but the equalizer was ruled out, with goalkeeper interference called on the play by the referee. So the game ended with Karpaty victory, as was the case a week before. Although the scoreline is not so convincing this time. However, Oleh Kononov looked happy at the post-game press conference – a win is a win, especially considering the club has achieved its main goal – got through to the next round.