When it is Fredrik Vaten exactly 107 years ago in a bowling alley in the center of Helsinki, he founded the club of the same name, it was probably hard to imagine that almost a century would have to pass, so that the football pride of Finland would finally do something more outside the borders of its country.
HJK Helsinki is by far the biggest club in Finland, and during the 1998/1999 season it somewhat shocked football Europe when it reached the group stage of the Champions League. Before that, the second round of one of the UEFA competitions was practically a "ceiling".
It wasn't then that the club, which was champion of Finland 33 times, made a big step forward, after that it managed to reach the Europa League groups in 2014/2015, only for everything to change from the 2021/2022 season... From then until now, Helsinki has tied three years in a row in the group stage of European competitions.
First in the Conference League, then in the Europa League and last year once again in the youngest Uefa competition... All this, it seems, speaks in the best way how difficult the Montenegrin champion Dečić will have to eliminate the team from the "Bolt Arena" in the coming days. in the 3rd round of the Conference League qualifiers.
Not everything is ideal this summer
Panevėžys sounds familiar in these areas, mostly because of the Litkabelis basketball club from that place, and it is precisely Dečić who could look for chances against Helsinki in the game of the football club that bears the name of this Lithuanian city.
The champion of Lithuania did not often play in Europe, and when he did appear, he was immediately relegated, but this year it was he who crushed the dreams of Helsinki in the Champions League qualifiers and sent him to the club from Tuzi.
Although the capital of Finland has in a way already gotten used to enjoying European matches, apparently everything did not go perfectly this summer.
In addition to all that, after 18 rounds of the domestic championship, he is currently minus three (with a match more) than the leader Kups.
"Ten" Lingman, the attacker from the Island
The fact that the club, which was the champion of Finland during the last four seasons, does not shine this year like the previous ones "paid" Feran Sibila, a Spanish expert who was fired in May. He arrived instead Toni Korkeakunas, an assistant in the Finnish national team and a man who previously led HJK.
The reason for the somewhat weaker games could also lie in the fact that the league's top scorer left the club Bojan Radulović and the best defender of the championship Tuomas Olila.
During this season, which starts in Finland at the beginning of April, everything revolves around the "ten" and the national team Lukas Lingman, who has already set up six goals and found the back of the net three times - is especially dangerous from free kicks.
They are responsible for scoring goals Luk Planž, a young English striker who arrived on loan from Premier League side Crystal Palace, as well as a talented Finn Top Middle, while the right back is also dangerous Kevin Kouasivi-Benissan. Perhaps the most sonorous name is Daniel O'Shaughnessy, the guy who commanded Finland's Euro 2020 defense.
When it comes to previous duels with Montenegrin teams, Helsinki has only played against Budućnosti - and that was precisely in the 2021/2022 season when the beautiful European story of this club started.
The Finnish team then eliminated our champion with a total of 7:1 in the 1st round of qualification for the Champions League, later failed to be better than Malmo, but moved to the Europa League and eventually reached the group stage of the Conference League.
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