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Alavés 1 - Rosenborg 1 Alavés: Herrera; Contra, Eggen, Téllez, Geli; Astudillo, Desio, Jordi Cruyff (Tomic 57'), Ibon Begoña (Magno 57'); Iván Alonso, Javi Moreno. 4-4-2. Goals: Alavés threw away a one-goal lead near the end of this game and left themselves with a lot to do in Norway in the second leg. Although from the same country, Rosenborg were a different prospect from Alavés's last opponents Lilleström, with considerable Champions League experience in recent years. They did however have a reputation for being easier to beat away from home, and Mané decided he would go for broke, including three forwards, Cruyff, Alonso and Moreno, for probably the first time ever in his spell as manager. He also decided to rest club captain Karmona in defence, bringing in Téllez (suspended in the league for three games) and his own Norwegian Dan Eggen, leaving Tomic, Magno and Begoña on the bench. The visitors started the game the better of the two, taking the game to Alavés with Skammelsrud hitting the crossbar early on. The tactical change left the home side with a man less in midfield, and they were short of ideas up front. However they took the lead against the run of play in the second half, with Contra cutting out an attack and chasing upfield to play a quick one two with Alonso before laying the ball on for Javi Moreno to score. Finally Alavés recovered their confidence, and Icelandic international keeper Arason did well to keep out substitute Magno shortly afterwards. But with ten minutes to go Herrera was caught chasing shadows by Sorensen on the right, and he chipped the ball back for Frode Johnsen to head into an empty net. Having drawn their first two European home matches and won away, Alavés still have a fair chance of going through to the next round. However Rosenborg are undefeated at home in Europe this season, and with temperatures likely to be below zero and an away goal against, this time the chips are stacked against them. |
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