Hibs foiled at death but Europa
● New signing Hyndman goes close to grabbing late win as Easter Road side held by Molde in first leg
of defence for a while. In the second minute Martin Boyle robbed Molde of possession in their own territory and drove in. He managed to play the ball into the area but it was cut out. Cleared as far as Vykintas Slivka, the Lithuanian had a stab at goal but was off target.
It was a sign of the home side’s intent and a minute later Mallan, pictured, ran on to a loose ball 25 yards out and leathered a shot but it soared over.
Although efforts were of the long-range variety, Hibs were letting the visiting keeper Andreas Linde know that he was in a game and Mallan gave him a start in the seventh minute when his curler crashed off his bar, while he was forced into a save two minutes later when Slivka belted a 25-yard attempt goalwards.
Having taken a while to settle into the game, Molde then started to apply some pressure of their own. But the quick one-twos as they attempted to pass their way into a clearing proved fruitless against a dogged rearguard, with Hibs quickly closing them down and pushing them back up the field. But in the 17th minute a diagonal ball slipped through to Petter Strand saw him send a driven pass across the face of goal. It forced Paul Hanlon to stick out a desperate leg to prevent it reaching Magnus Wolff Eikrem coming in behind him. Shortly afterwards Daniel Chima took a ball into feet at the edge of the Hibs box and laid it off to Eirik Hestad but his pass into the danger area was hoofed clear.
Hibs then went on their own foraging mission but Boyle just couldn’t get a toe to Florian Kamberi’s low cross. Boyle was causing problems with his pace and direct running and then Linde had to pull off another scrambling save in the 32nd minute following some good work by Mallan.
Aware of the counterattacking potential of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, Lennon’s men were disciplined in that opening half hour and while Chima and Hestad worked to ignite a few breakaways, they were always tracked by Slivka, Lewis Stevenson or Bartley while the defence stood rigid any time they did slip that leash. There was a scare in the 36th minute, though, as Chima was allowed to rise unchallenged to meet a Wolff Eikrem corner but the striker could not make it count.
As the second half started Molde were looking for the away goal but whenever they engineered an opening they were just not clinical enough.
Lennon had asserted his belief that Solskjaer’s side did not represent a big step up from Asteras, the Leith side’s vanquished opponents from the previous round, and his opinion was a valid one on the evidence of this 90 minutes. Keeping a clean sheet, the only disappointment was the inability to score themselves. Boyle did not give up trying, though. He got his toe to a David Gray ball forward in the 56th minute and had another close-range effort blocked ten minutes later, while Gray’s header from a Mallan corner had Linde scrambling.
But even with Hyndman and Oli Shaw thrown into the mix with ten minutes to go there wasnobreakthroughandhibs now travel to Norway looking for a win but fully aware that a score draw would do.