published: thursday 1 december 2011, 21.00cet odense bk 1-2 wisla kraków
first-half strikes from david biton and patryk malecki ensured the polish champions remain in the hunt for qualification from group k.
wisla kraków kept alive their hope of a place in the round of 32 with a narrow victory at odense bk in uefa europa league group k.
first-half strikes from david biton and patryk malecki eliminated ob, whose goal came via rasmus falk after the break. the polish champions host fc twente on 14 december knowing that a place in the round of 32 will be theirs if they win and fulham fc fail to claim maximum points at home against ob.
both sides needed victory to remain in contention and stated their attacking intent early on. ınside the opening two minutes, falk shrugged off the attentions of two defenders down the left and crossed for hans henrik andreasen, who headed over from close range. an unmarked andreas johansson spurned the hosts' next opportunity, heading chris sørensen's corner over the bar.
however, against the run of play it was the visitors who took the lead when lukasz gargula attacked an exposed ob defence and found the lively biton, who poked the ball past mads toppel. buoyed by their goal, wisla grabbed a second on the counterattack eight minutes later. malecki ran at anders møller christensen before cutting in from the left and firing into the top right-hand corner.
kazimierz moskal's charges were in the ascendency and moments later biton came close to netting his second of the night but, after cutting inside tore reginiussen, his strike was expertly tipped over by toppel.
much improved after the break, ob were back in the match when falk evaded the challenge of michael lamey and coolly slotted past sergei pareiko. ob pushed forward in search of an equaliser, their best chance falling to bashkim kadrii, but the substitute dragged his effort wide. biton missed two glorious opportunities to seal the points but wisla held on to claim a second group k victory.
