Mjallby claimed a 2-0 win over Borac Banja Luka in the UEFA Conference League, becoming the first Swedish side since Ostersund in 2017 to go undefeated in the opening three main draw games in European competition.
Encouraged by an incredibly enthusiastic pocket of travelling fans, Borac probed from the off, firing several speculative efforts, albeit without really troubling Alexander Lundin in the Mjallby goal. At the other end, Mladen Jurkas had to be alert to push over Jesper Gustavsson’s first-time side-footed effort, shortly before a deflected Romeo Arrhenius shot almost crept in.
Momentum was now firmly with the Swedish side as a determined Jeppe Kjaer run ended with a combination of Sebastian Herrera and Jurkas diverting his strike off-target, and the resulting corner should have put Mjallby ahead were it not for Axel Noren mistiming his header from point-blank range.
Despite this, it was Borac fans left frustrated at the end of the half, as their side passed up the best opportunity of the half when Stefan Savic poked a square ball through to Luka Juricic, who was denied what looked to be a certain goal by Lundin’s reaction save at close range.
With nine of Mjallby’s last 11 competitive games featuring under 2.5 goals, it was perhaps unsurprising to see the sides start the second half level. Yet an absolute gift was presented to Jacob Bergstrom nine minutes after the restart when Sinisa Sanicanin’s loose pass gave him the relatively simple task of tucking the ball past a helpless Jurkas to put the Swedish side ahead.
There was a muted response from Borac, and with 88 minutes on the clock, substitute Mads Enggaard put the game beyond doubt when he swept in first-time after some neat build-up play to make it 2-0.
In only the second meeting between teams from Sweden and Bosnia & Herzegovina in major European competition, it was the Scandinavians who ultimately secured the points, taking them to the top of the league phase standings for the time being. For Borac, their run of four successive wins across all competitions comes to an end, having now lost 14 of their last 20 European away matches.
Follow all of tonight’s Conference League action on Flashscore.