Motherwell secured a 1-1 draw away to HJK Helsinki in the first leg of their Conference League third qualifying round tie. The Lanarkshire side's new Swedish boss Alfred Johansson briefly looked on course for his fourth consecutive victory after talismanic forward Tawanda Maswanhise scored a penalty just after the hour.
However, 36-year-old former Celtic and Norwich striker Teemu Pukki equalised for Finnish side HJK within seconds of stepping off the bench. Motherwell will return home feeling they have a good chance of setting up a play-off round showdown with Europa League runners-up Freiburg later this month, despite losing Alex Lowry and Regan Charles-Cook to injuries in the closing stages.
Johansson praised his squad after the match. "I think it was a good performance. I’m very, very proud of the players," Johansson said. "They started to be even more brave in their decision-making, they were more aggressive in the press, which allows you to recover more balls higher up the pitch, which makes you feel more confident. The players turned up the heat a little bit and that was good to see."
Match action and penalty
Johansson handed a first start to on-loan Wycombe midfielder Lowry and a first start of the season to Maswanhise. HJK, who thrashed Coleraine 8-0 on aggregate in the previous round, went into the match on the back of a 3-0 Veikkausliiga defeat at SJK on Monday that left them fourth in the table.
The hosts had the best chance of an evenly contested but largely uneventful first half when Leonel Montano saw a close-range header pushed behind by goalkeeper Alex Paulsen. Paulsen was called into action again two minutes after the break to deny Mads Borchers on the angle of the six-yard box.
Having struggled to impose themselves in the final third before the break, Motherwell made a more purposeful start to the second half. Lowry, Charles-Cook and Martin Moormann went close before Emmanuel Longelo smashed a ferocious strike off the crossbar.
Just before the hour, Charles-Cook went down in the box under a challenge by Miska Ylitolva. Following a lengthy VAR check and a pitchside monitor review, Czech referee Dalibor Cerny awarded a penalty and masked man Maswanhise stepped up to fire home his first goal of the season.
Pukki was introduced in the 70th minute for HJK, and the veteran front man brought the hosts level within a minute of entering the fray with an angled finish high past Paulsen from six yards.
