Flirting with European football

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It’s been a while since I’ve made a post here, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve been sitting on butt and enjoying the summer weather. During this last month I’ve gotten to cover a fair amount of AIK games for one of my colleagues who has been on summer vacation.

It started out with a Europa League qualifier match where AIK meet Polish side Lech Poznan. I was especially excited to go and photograph this match because Swedish teams tend to only flirt with European football. Often the dream ends at the qualification level, and seeing a Swedish team in the group phase of a European competition is a rare event. So for me it was exciting because it provided me with an opportunity to photograph some foreign teams and a change to day dream about the possibility of some bigger sides coming to play in the following rounds.

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In the end AIK made quick work of Lech Ponzan and won the match comfortably thus booking their place into the next qualification round of the UEFA Europa League. The strongest showing made the Lech Ponzan was actually by their fans who caused trouble before, during, and after the game.

With one game down next up was a match in the Swedish league where AIK meet Örebro. Like Lech Ponzan before them Örebro was disposed of with ease as AIK went on to win 3-0.

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Finally I closed out with another Europa League qualifier game as AIK meet CSKA Moskva earlier this week. Unfortunately this time AIK’s good run of form ran out and they lost 1-0 to the visitors.

And while the scoreline is close I think there was quite a difference in quality between the two sides. The return leg is this coming week in Moscow and I suspect that CSKA Moskva will be eliminating AIK from the Europa League. Although I’m naturally crossing my fingers and hoping AIK can upset them as it would give me the opportunity to photograph some more European teams this fall.

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