Birkirkara put themselves in a favourable position to progress to the second qualifying round of the Europa League tie after holding Siroki Brijeg to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Bosnia yesterday.
Drazen Besek’s men showed great tactical organisation to keep at bay their more-quoted opponents with Cain Attard grabbing a priceless away goal that gives them a slight advantage ahead of Tuesday’s return leg at the Hibs Stadium.
Siroki started strongly and twice came close to an opener inside the first ten minutes.
After two minutes, Dino Coric beat the Birkirkara’s offside trap but his effort came off the upright.
Seven minutes later the Birkirkara defence failed to deal with Stipo Markovic’s cross and Ivan Baraban fired over from routine distance.
But gradually Birkirkara settled down and on 13 minutes, Vito Plut was unlucky not to put the Stripes ahead.
The Slovenian forward raced through but his low drive came off the upright before Brijeg’s defence cleared for a corner.
From the ensuing flag-kick, taken by Srdjan Dimitrov, Attard pounced on the far post to stab the ball home.
Siroki looked rattled and had to wait till the 39th minute to threaten.
From a Jure Ivankovic corner-kick, Slavko Brekalo’s header was somehow kept out by Kopric.
Siroki drew level on the stroke of half-time when Markovic picked Baraban inside the area and the winger drilled the ball home.
On the restart, the match remained evenly balanced with Birkirkara continuing to look dangerous with their quick forays.
On 62 minutes, it had to be a fine one-handed save by goalkeeper Antonio Soldo to push away Ryan Scicluna’s scorcher.
Siroki turned up the screw in the final 10 minutes but were twice dented by Kopric.
On 77 minutes the Birkirkara no.1 did well to keep out Ivan Crnov’s effort from routine distance.
Eight minutes later he again stood out when pushing away Wagner’s dipping header as the Stripes held on to a morale-boosting result ahead of the second leg.
Birkirkara: M. Kopric, C. Bubalovic, G. Sciberras, E. Marcelina, R. Camenzuli (57 S. Bajada), S. Dimitrov, V. Plut, J. Zerafa (63 M. Guillaumier), R. Scicluna (76 E. Zarate), C. Attard, P. Jovic.