Fenerbahçe managed to reach the group stage of the Europa League on Thursday. The Turkish top club won 2-5 against HJK Helsinki in Finland, more than enough after last week’s 1-0 victory in the home game. The absolute star of the evening was Enner Valencia, who scored all the goals for Fenerbahçe.
At Fenerbahçe, eye-catcher Mesut Özil started as a hanging wing striker on the right, while Ferdi Kadioglu started on the left in midfield. Former FC Groningen midfielder Tim Sparv started at HJK in the base. Bumbling in the back at HJK led in the opening goal of the Turks in the eleventh minute. The Finnish defense thought to let a ball pass over the back line, but had not counted on Nazim Sangaré’s sprint, who returned the ball to Valencia. The striker was given room to turn in the sixteen-meter area and found the far bottom corner: 0-1.
Three minutes later, Fenerbahçe put an end to all Finnish aspirations. Valencia got the ball out of the box eighteen meters from the goal and scored with a hard and low shot: 0-2. Roope Riski did something back for HJK in the 27th minute, by controlling a difficult ball in the box and shooting in from the bounce: 1-2.
A little later, Valencia crowned his evening by tapping in a low cross from Sangaré again beautifully behind his standing leg: 1-3. Two minutes before the end, Riski showed his spitting instinct again by making the 2-3 for HJK from a cross. It was to no avail, because Fatih Sanliturk, who had come in for Valencia, finished one-on-one with the keeper in injury time: 2-4. It even became 2-5 via an own goal by Matti Peltola with a wrong pass through the chest.
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