Pennanen's Corner Goal Can't Stop Salah's Trabzonspor

Goals scored straight from corners are rarely seen on football pitches. Petteri Pennanen did exactly that in Tampere, but his strike was not enough to prevent KuPS from losing 4–2 to Trabzonspor in the opening round of the Conference League league stage.

KuPS were hosts away from home in more ways than one. To meet UEFA venue criteria, the Finnish side had to leave Kuopio and stage the tie at a sold-out Tammela Stadium in Tampere, on an artificial pitch on a chilly night. Trabzonspor rested key players with a league meeting against Beşiktaş on the horizon, and still had the game half-won by the interval. Salah was the evening's main attraction, drawing loud cheers from the local Finnish supporters before kickoff and throughout.

Salah sets the tone as Trabzonspor seize early control

The opener arrived inside three minutes, and Salah built it. His first-time ball cut in behind the KuPS defence, and Paul Onuachu controlled, held off his marker as he entered the area and placed a low right-footed finish past Johannes Kreidl into the bottom-right corner. The goal stood after a VAR check.

Onuachu did not stay on the pitch for long. He was forced off injured just seven minutes after scoring, a blow that overshadowed much of the post-match impression.

Trabzonspor barely blinked. A minute before half-time, Aral Şimşir's effort was cleared to the right edge of the box, and Salah met the loose ball with a sweeping first-time left-footed curler that went in off the underside of the crossbar and into the far top corner. That made it 2–0 and took him to eight goals in all competitions this season, from eight appearances.

Two minutes after the restart, the tie looked finished. Right-back Wagner Pina broke into the KuPS area and drove a low shot that Kreidl could only parry, and Franculino Djú reacted first to turn the rebound home from close range, another goal confirmed after a VAR check.

Pennanen's corner goal drags KuPS back into the contest

Then came the moment Tampere will remember. In the 54th minute, Petteri Pennanen stood over an in-swinging corner from the left and went for goal. The ball curled over André Onana's outstretched arm and dropped inside the far top corner, an olímpico and Pennanen's first career goal in the main stage of a UEFA competition.

It was no accident that the breakthrough came from a dead ball. KuPS won nine corners to Trabzonspor's six, and set pieces were their clearest route through a side that kept more of the ball, with 55% possession.

Five minutes later, KuPS had the chance to make it a one-goal game. Referee Ishmael Barbara pointed to the spot for a handball by Samet Akaydin during a challenge in the area, but Onana dived to his bottom left to parry Piotr Parzyszek's penalty, and Parzyszek volleyed the rebound over the crossbar.

It capped a strange night for the striker. At one point Barbara had shown Parzyszek a red card, believing it was a second yellow, before realising he had not booked him earlier and rescinding the dismissal. The miss was the costlier moment: some Turkish reaction criticised the lapses in concentration after the 3–0 lead, crediting Onana's save with sparing Trabzonspor a nerve-racking finish at 3–2.

Franculino punishes KuPS gamble in stoppage time

KuPS did find a second goal, only too late. Gustav Engvall, on from the bench in his return from injury, pounced when Trabzonspor failed to clear a loose ball in the box and blasted it past Onana's right. With 90 minutes on the clock, it was 3–2.

Chasing an equaliser, KuPS sent everyone forward for a stoppage-time corner, goalkeeper Kreidl included. Trabzonspor broke at speed: Franculino released Ernest Muçi down the left, Muçi beat his man and squared the ball back, and Franculino tapped into the empty net.

That completed a brace on his European debut for the club and took him to three goals in five appearances this season. It also gave a fair shape to the numbers. Trabzonspor fired 22 shots to KuPS's 15, and both sides landed eight on target, a measure of how open the night was. The visitors were simply more ruthless with theirs.

Trabzonspor climb to third as Onuachu worry grows

The win lifts Trabzonspor to third in the league stage with three points and makes it three straight victories in all competitions. One report also noted it ended a nine-match losing streak away from home in the group and league phases of UEFA club competitions.

Salah's evening carried history too, as he became only the third player to register both a goal and an assist across all three current UEFA club competitions. He has now scored in four of Trabzonspor's last six matches, and Turkish outlets hailed an emphatic attacking display driven by his creativity and Franculino's sharpness.

The mood was not entirely clean, though. Press attention quickly turned to Onuachu, scorer of three goals in eight appearances this season, and how his likely absence will affect the squad before the derby against Beşiktaş.

For KuPS, the table offers a blunt verdict: 31st, without a point. They have scored in each of their last five matches in all competitions, six goals in total, and twice breached a Trabzonspor side playing in an altered lineup here. The problem sat at the other end, with three conceded before Pennanen's moment of invention and a fourth when they threw everything at it. The penalty is what will linger.