Häcken travelled to the western parts of Germany to make his Europa League debut against Bayer Leverkusen. And the Swedish champions got off to a nightmare start. After just under ten minutes, Florian Wirtz, who won the Europa League Young Player of the Year award last season – received a deep ball and coolly chipped the ball in behind a chanceless Peter Abrahamsson in the Häcken goal.
The runner-up came just six minutes later. Granit Xhaka hit a fine post to Amin Adli who volleyed the ball straight into the cross. And where would this end?
But the reigning Swedish champions rose where Abrahamsson's big game kept the numbers down and at the end of the first half Häcken came close to reducing three times over. But 2-0 the half stood out.
Missed punishment?
Häcken continued to counter in the second half where Amor Layouni was the front man in the attacking game. The Swedish-Tunisian lined up chances and came close to giving his Häcken a penalty. However, after a brief VAR review, the refereeing team, led by Manfredas Lukjanchukas, chose not to blow a penalty.
Shortly afterwards, Leverkusen were able to close the game when the Häcken defence was careless and Victor Boniface could easily make it 3-0. The fourth grade would also come. Substitute Jonas Hofmann received the ball in the penalty area and easily placed the final score.
At the same time, Qarabag from Azerbaijan was able to defeat Norwegian Molde with 1-0. The next Europa League match for Häcken will be played against Qarabag at Nya Ullevi on October 5.