Again a perfect evening in Finland for the visit of the capital’s HJK.
EIF have never won the Finnish Cup and they may have a chance after eliminating the record-winners on spot-kicks.
That was after a fairly tepid ninety minutes when the visitors generally had more of play without really testing the home goalie.
Who would ultimately go on to be the hero.
HJK left some of their higher profile players on the bench only to bring them on later after failing to achieve a breakthrough.
Hassane Bande (Burkina Faso) played up front for HJK in the first half but couldn’t produce a significant threat and was replaced by highly rated Keskinen and eventually Crystal Palace's Luke Plange.
But despite good possession the team from Helsinki couldn’t test Brazilian Ramilson Almeida.
Whilst EIF got into the game especially through Abdoulaye Kante and with captain Kofi Adu’s (Ghana) regular battling in midfield.
Another Ghanaian Nasiru Mohammed was less productive down the left and he would get substituted.
Sadly even worse happened to Brazilian Forsten-Kaufmann who only appeared for about ten minutes before suffering an painful injury.
The ninety minutes would end with some half chances for HJK but nothing to productive to show.
Which left the lottery of penalties and apart from Fofana (Ivory Coast) striking the post EIF converted all theirs and saw the excellent Almeida save two of HJK’s.
The Brazilian goalie, who was solid thoughout, deserved to be the hero in a game that only really sparked into life at the finish.
Report - John Bethell
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