Blackburn took a small advantage away from Finland, while Hammarby doubled up Fredrikstad and Aalborg slipped at HJK.

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WASTEFUL ROVERS EDGE HOSTS
Blackburn will hold a 1-0 advantage for the home leg after starting their final UEFA Cup qualification tie with a slim win over MyPa in Helsinki on Thursday.

Brad Friedel worked the contest for Rovers - if one could call it that. The American was only pressed into making a single save, although it was a good low stop on Mikko Hyyrynen.

The visitors would get all the offense they would need after five minutes as Paraguay ace Roque Santa Cruz continued his fine form by racing at the MyPa area before firing lefty across his body and inside the far post.

Rovers continued to carry play, but would come no closer than David Dunn's frame shaver near the break.

The hosts were foiled in the 55th minute, when Christopher Samba made a halting tackle on free runner Eero Peltonen.

Blackburn regained control of the game after some subs, but could not grab a second goal, with both Santa Cruz and Matt Derbyshire narrowly missing.

Scoring
BLA - Roque Santa Cruz (Jason Roberts) 6'

BLA - Brad Friedel; André Ooijer, Christopher Samba, Ryan Nelsen, Stephen Warnock, David Bentley, Robbie Savage, David Dunn (Tugay 72'), Morten Gamst Pedersen (Brett Emerton 72'), Roque Santa Cruz, Jason Roberts (Matt Derbyshire 65')

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AALBORG TRIPPED UP AT HJK
Aalborg BK lost the first leg of their second UEFA Cup qualification round 2-1 against Finnish side HJK Helsinki on Thursday evening.

Captain Danny Califf and his team suffered from lack of experience with the artificial turf, which to make matters worse, became slippery in the rain.

The Finns, however, knew their field and 15 minutes into the game, Kabba Samura brought the hosts up 1-0 after beating Califf to the ball.

The lead lasted until the 37th minute when Kasper Risgård put his head to a free kick cross from the right and scored the all-important away goal to even the scores for halftime.

Ten minutes into the second, however, Samura was on the spot again and brought the Finns up once more with a header.

AaB's Siyabonga Nomvethe had the ball in the net two minutes later, but a dubious offside call kept the score at 2-1.

The second leg will be played on August 30th at Aalborg Stadion.

Scoring
HJK - Kabba Samura 15'
AAB - Kasper Risgård (Martin Pedersen) 37'
HJK - Kabba Samura (Grant Smith) 55'

AAB - Martin S. Jensen; Allan Olesen, Danny Califf, Michael Jakobsen, Martin Pedersen, Kasper Risgård, Thomas Enevoldsen, Mattias Lindström, Siyabonga Nomvethe, Andreas Johansson, Jeppe Curth

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BAJEN HOLD OFF FREDRIKSTAD
Hammarby notched a deserved 2-1 home victory over Norwegian side Fredrikstad FK on Thursday night.

Brian West went close to scoring for Fredrikstad in his 90 minutes, while Charlie Davies joined the contest for Hammarby in the 86th minute.

Bajen clearly dominated the game and could have won by a much larger margin if it were not for the heroics of Fredrikstad's Sweden keeper Rami Shaaban.

Hammarby made their breakthrough in the 35th minute when David Johansson sent in a cross from the right flank for Brazilian hitman Paulinho Guará to easily volley home.

Another volley increased the lead for the Stockholm club when midfielder Sebastian Castro-Tello did well to connect with an off-balance effort from the edge of the box that nestled inside the far post.

The Norwegians refused to give up, and Brian West had a great chance when he powered a diving header barely wide in the 55th minute.

Fredrikstad kept battling and grabbed an important away goal when the impressive Raymond Kvisvik powered in a long range strike off the left post and in.

Hammarby will take their slim lead to Fredrikstad for the final leg, which will be played on August 30th.

Scoring
HIF - Paulinho Guará (David Johansson) 35'
HIF - Sebastian Castro-Tello (Petter Andersson) 49'
FFK - Raymond Kvisvik 74'

Line-ups