Vikur Reykjavik hosted Borac Banja Luka in the UEFA Conference League playoff round on Wednesday evening, and the visitors ended a barren spell with a 3-1 victory at Víkingsvöllur. The result sends the Bosnian side through to the next stage while leaving the Icelandic side needing to regroup before their domestic fixtures resume. And here's the thing — Vikur had dominated possession but found themselves chasing the game for long stretches.
Borac struck twice in quick succession to set the tone. L. Juricic opened the scoring in the 21st minute, and M. Jojic doubled the advantage just two minutes later. Vikur finally pulled one back through G. Sigurdsson from the spot in the 75th minute, but L. Juricic had already sealed the result with his second goal in the 86th. By then, the momentum had shifted entirely.
The statistics tell a familiar story where one side controls the ball without controlling the match. Vikur Reykjavik held 68 per cent possession and registered 159 attacks compared to Borac's 108, yet their five shots on target yielded a single goal while Borac converted five attempts into three. Chances went begging on the home side, while the visitors made their moments count.
Our forecast had placed confidence at 59 per cent on a home win, but the match went differently — Borac's clinical finishing and Vikur's inability to hold their shape after conceding twice early on proved decisive. The visitors ended their recent run without a win, having lost to MKK-Dnepr and drawn with Petrokub, while Vikur's form remains inconsistent with results against FH Hafnarfjörður and TUN.
The goal difference and points gap now matter for qualification hopes in this competition. Vikur will need to assess what went wrong when they controlled the ball but lost the contest, while Borac can take confidence from a performance that mattered more than possession figures.