Hammarby (Sweden) 1 Cork City 0:Cork City manager Damien Richardson insisted a lack of composure in possession contributed to his side's exit from the Intertoto Cup at the second-round stage on Saturday. He was deeply frustrated at the 2-1 aggregate defeat by the Swedish side as he believed this second leg defeat had been avoidable.
Without producing anything approaching an impressive display, Hammarby progressed thanks to Petter Andersson's 53rd-minute goal.
A 1-1 draw in the first leg in Turner's Cross last weekend meant Cork needed to score and keep a clean sheet to secure the victory. Having twice eliminated Swedish sides from Europe in the past four years, Richardson's side went into the tie at the Rasunda Stadium not lacking in confidence. But ultimately they failed to pass the ball to the level that has become their hallmark in European competition in recent seasons.
The winning goal came after a mix-up between Gareth Farrelly and Roy O'Donovan that allowed Erkan Zengin set up Andersson to drill past City goalkeeper Mick Devine from 20 yards.
"Two things are very essential at this level - keeping possession of the ball and keeping concentration," said Richardson.
"We worked extraordinarily hard, our attitude was first class and our concentration was immense but our possession of the ball was poor. The only chances they had against us, every one of them came from us giving the ball away in dangerous areas. The goal was the classic example of that.
"I asked at half-time that we get better possession of the ball and anytime we did we were different class."
Brazilian striker Paulinho was denied an opener in the 34th minute when he hit the City upright. Two minutes before the break Czech referee Radek Matejek called upon home skipper Suleyman Sleyman to ask his side's fans to stop showering Devine with objects.
The result could have been different had City taken advantage of two second-half chances. Six minutes after Andersson's opener Seán Kelly got on the end of a Liam Kearney corner but failed to hit the target with a poor header. O'Donovan was denied by goalkeeper Benny Lekstrom in the 65th minute after connecting with a Colin Healy knockdown.
Despite pouring forward City could not find the goal needed to send the tie into extra-time.
HAMMARBY: Lekstrom; Monteiro, Traore, Sleyman, D Johansson, Chanko, Zengin, Laitinen (Jensen, 78 mins), Castro-Tello (Sebastian Eguren, 62 mins), Andersson, Paulinho (Juliasson, 91 mins).
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan (Lordan, 87 mins), Kelly, Murray, Woods, Kearney (Behan, 83 mins), Healy, Gamble, Farrelly, O'Donovan, O'Flynn.
Referee: R Matejek (Czech Republic)
