Malmö had a strong result – 3–1 – from the away match in Georgia last week. Before the return match at home, the starting position was thus excellent for securing advancement to the second qualifying round in the Champions League.
Coach Henrik Rydström chose to make five changes compared to the eleven that defeated IFK Norrköping in Saturday's Allsvenskan match.
Among other things, Melker Ellborg took his place in goal, as Robin Olsen is not registered to play in the first qualifying round.
The match start at Eleda Stadion was poor in chances. When the signal sounded for the break, it was still goalless.
Midfielder Otto Rosengren summed up the half like this in MFF Plays' broadcast:
We become too low, the pressure doesn't work so well. We need to be better with the ball and show ourselves more, he said.
When the second half began, Johan Karlsson had left his place for Nils Zätterström.
A little over ten minutes later, the deadlock would be broken by Taha Ali, who could easily lob the ball into the open goal. 1–0 to Malmö FF for the evening, and 4–1 overall.
After just over an hour of play, Pontus Jansson headed in 2–0 when he was allowed to go up completely unmarked on a corner. Taha Ali then became a two-goal scorer when he put in 3–0. The Georgians polished the numbers via a reduction goal with the match's last kick, and the double meeting ended with a total of 6–2.
Now, Latvian FC RFS awaits MFF in the next phase of the qualifying game. The Latvians knocked out Levadia Tallinn from Estonia with a total of 2–0.
