Hibs were taught a footballing lesson last night by an excellent Malmo team in front of a packed Easter Road stadium.
Forty three years ago, Hibs beat Malmo 6-0 at Easter Road, but the Swedes finally got their revenge by going one better. Goals from Magnus Eriksson, Emil Forsberg, Markus Halsti, Miiko Albornoz, Tokelo Rantie, Jiloan Hamad, Simon Kroon silenced the large crowd who had answered Pat Fenlon’s call to turn up in numbers and make the stadium bounce.
The minute’s applause in memory of the great Lawrie Reilly added to the atmosphere, and the game kicked off to a wall of noise throughout the stadium.
Pat Fenlon made one change to the starting XI who lost 2-0 in Malmo last week, with Alex Harris replacing Owain Tudur Jones in midfield.
The makeshift back four of Lewis Stevenson, James McPake, Jordon Forster and Paul Hanlon remained in place, and Hibs started brightly, with new signing Rowan Vine causing the Malmo defence problems.
Before the game, McPake had highlighted the importance of scoring first, however it was not to be and Eriksson silenced the Hibs fans with a side-footed goal from a Rante cut-back.
Easter Road erupted a minute later when Vine smashed Liam Craig’s flick on into the net however he was correctly ruled offside.
Rantie, almost doubled the visitors’ lead soon after but he was denied by a fantastic save from Ben Williams.
McPake was flinging himself into every 50-50 challenge to keep the Malmo forwards at bay, but his efforts led to him picking up a back injury and he was forced to limp off. Fraser Mullen replaced McPake and moved to right back with Stevenson returning to his preferred left back slot.
Hibs were lucky to escape when Eriksson’s shot came back off the post and Hamad with unable to convert the rebound which was cleared after a stramash in the box.
The fans’ relief only lasted a minute however as Malmo doubled their lead through Forsberg, to effectively end the tie as a contest.
Any Hibs fan who thought that Malmo would sit back and defend realised that they were mistaken when the impressive Hamad found Halsti who curled the ball into the Hibs net.
Albornoz then added a fourth with powerful effort and only a last ditch tackle by Mullen prevented Hibs going in 5-0 down at the break.
On 60 minutes a powerful strike from Hamad was saved by Williams, however the ball squirmed away from his grasp and Rantie was on hand to knock it into the net from close range.
Four minutes later Jordon Forster was booked for bringing down Hamad on the edge of the box, and the striker smashed the resultant free kick past Williams into the net at the near post.
Malmo grabbed a seventh goal when Rantie’s cut back found Kroon and the substitute calmly slotted the ball into the net from close range.
In the final minute Liam Craig went close with a well taken free kick which the keeper saved.
After the game a shell-shocked Pat Fenlon said: “First of all I want to apologise to the supporters. It’s difficult for me to make excuses; it’s just not good enough.
“It’s embarrassing more than anything else. We did all right at the start of the game then lost a goal and it fell apart. It was very disappointing. I have to look at myself and not just blame the players. We had a make-shift back four and James going off didn’t help but Fraser came on and did all right. It’s difficult at this stage to be positive.
“The season starts next week and it’s a massive challenge to get things right.”
Hibernian: Williams, Hanlon, McPake (Mullen 23′), Harris (Stanton 74′), Vine, Craig, Stevenson, Handling, Taiwo (Robertson 54′), Forster, Thomson. Substitutes not used: Murdoch, Tudur Jones, Caldwell, Horribine.
FF Malmo: Dahlin, Albornoz, Ricardinho, Jansson, Johansson, Hamad, Forsberg (Kroon 46′), Thern, Halsti (Friberg 62′), Eriksson (Cibicki 59′), Rantie.Substitutes not used: Olsen, Konate, Helander, Fadi.
Referee: Sebastien Delferiere.
Attendance: 16,018
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
