Brann beat Austria Wien 2-1 in Bergen in the first leg of the third qualifying round, and carry a one-goal lead into next Tuesday. The winners go through to the eighteen-team league phase. The losers drop into the second qualifying round of the Women’s Europa Cup.
Austria had thirteen attempts and put nine on target. Brann had seven and hit the target three times. The side that shot least won.
Both goals came from corners
Neither was scored in open play.
On 22 minutes Nea Lehtola swung a corner in from the right and it went in untouched, with Jasmin Pal coming for the ball and not reaching it.
Four minutes later Austria had a corner of their own, also from the right. Brann’s clearance fell short and Elisa Pfattner volleyed it back past the goalkeeper from the right of the box.
It was 1-1 at the break, and until then the visitors had run the half: theirs was the first shot, on eight minutes, and theirs were the first two corners.
The spot-kick Pal saved, and it did her no good
On 60 minutes Lotta Cordes caught Lauren Davidson inside the area and referee Alina Peșu pointed to the spot. There is no VAR at this stage of the competition.
Davidson took it herself. Pal went to her right and pushed it away — but the rebound came straight back to the taker, and Davidson buried the second one.
So the goal that currently decides the tie is a missed penalty and a Davidson goal on 62 minutes, both at once. UEFA record it both ways.
Austria shot more and got nothing
The second goal did not settle the match. It opened it.
On 81 minutes Modesta Uka went down in the box under Josefine Birkelund and Austria appealed for a second penalty. Peșu waved it away — the same official who had given the first for a similar coming-together.
Austria finished with eighteen fouls to Brann’s eight, and three offsides to none.
Brann had the chance to make it 3-1 in stoppage time, when Carina Wik Alfredsen, on since the 75th minute, shot from five yards and missed the goal.
1,807
There were 1,807 people inside Brann Stadion, on kicker’s count. UEFA do not publish an attendance for this match.
Less than a year ago, on the same ground and at the same stage, Brann hosted Manchester United in front of 16,019 — the biggest crowd Norwegian women’s football has ever drawn, past the 11,636 for a Brann-Rosenborg match at Lerkendal in 2022. Brann won that night too, 1-0.
They won this one as well. In front of roughly one ninth of the people.
The second leg
Vienna, Tuesday 1 September, 18:00 at the Franz-Horr-Stadion.
This is the round Austria went out in last season, and that also ended in Vienna: a goalless draw away at Paris FC, then a 2-0 defeat at home.
This time they start a goal down rather than level. And with nine shots on target behind them.
