AMSTERDAM – Ethan Horvath and Molde FK are on their way to the Europa League group phase, squeaking into the final 48 by a virtue of a single away goal following a 3-1 second leg loss at Standard Liège on Thursday night.
The Norwegian champs saw their two-goal advantage from the home opener melt away to a 3-3 aggregate draw, but Etzaz Hussain's seeing-eye restart serve just before the break was enough to nudge them ahead in the tournament. Just after Anthony Knockaert netted Standard's first goal of the tie on 25 minutes, Horvath made perhaps the biggest of his five saves on the night, denying the midfielder a second to keep the visitors in the driver's seat.
In the 33rd minute, Horvath again denied the hosts a chance to level the tie by pushing a free kick dipper over the bar. Hussain's goal restored Molde's the two-goal aggregate lead until the other side of the break, when Ivan Santini sliced it right back in half. The away defense then tightened things up until Adrien Trebel fired home an effectively meaningless long drive deep into stoppage time.
Horvath & Co. will now await the results of Friday's group phase draw. They are seeded in the final seed group, Pot 4, along with Desevio Payne's Groningen. Both DeAndre Yedlin's Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund with recovering US international Joseph Gyau are in Pot 1.
Elsewhere, Nermin Crnkić and Jablonec fell out of the tournament after a frustrating 0-0 home stalemate with 10-man Ajax.
The Czech side bowed out on a slim 1-0 aggregate margin despite being granted a 58th minute penalty kick and playing a man up the rest of the way following that miss. The Bosnian-American left winger, who saw yellow early in his 68-minute shift, had a good break-in chance snuffed out by Ajax netminder Jasper Cillessen midway through the opening frame.
