Brøndby last night took a giant stride towards the Europa League group stage with an impressive 2-0 win away at Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their qualifying tie. The return leg is next Thursday at Brøndby Stadion.
Goals either side of half time from Jan Kristiansen and Ousman Jallow gave Sporting’s new coach Paulo Sergio the worst possible start to his tenure in charge of the 2005 UEFA Cup runners-up.
The defeat means Sporting, who defeated Danish side Nordsjaelland 3-1 on aggregate in the previous round, have become the first ever Portuguese side to lose to Danish opposition in Europe.
While Brøndby controlled the game, Sporting were lethargic and only raised their game following the second goal during a ten-minute spell of pressure in which they hit the woodwork twice. But the Brøndby defence held firm.
In the other Europa League qualifying tie involving a Danish side last night, Odense BK beat Scottish club Motherwell 2-1 at home. Odense led 1-0 at half-time thanks to a Chris Sorensen effort, and Peter Utaka added a second in the 78thminute. But in a frantic final ten minutes, the Scots were reduced to ten men following the sending off of Steve Jennings, but then pulled one back through a Tom Hateley freekick in stoppage time.
The Copenhagen Post
