July 31, 2015 By Sahr Morris Jr.
Sierra Leone forward, Mohamed ‘Poborsky’ Bangura, is in line to lead AIK Solna’s striking force against Atromitos Athinon of Greece in the third round qualifiers of the UEFA Europa League.
The Swedish club will host their Greek counterparts on Thursday at the Friends Arena in Solna and with both Enoch Goitom and Ebenezer Ofori likely to miss out due to cold, the Sierra Leonean forward is in line to take the lead role.
Bangura, who scored his fifth goal and his seventh in all competition this season against IF Elfsborg in their 4-2 victory in the Swedish league on Sunday, is unconcerned with the manager Andreas Alm’s rotational policy.
“I’m happy with the manager’s decision, we win and lose together,” said Bangura. “The important thing is that I’m here, I’m strong and feeling ok and ready anytime I’m needed by the manager.
“I’m now looking forward to Thursday’s big match in the Europa league qualifier against the Greek side Atromitos. It is going to be difficult but we’re a black army, we fight together.”
AIK had easy games in the previous Europa League qualifying rounds. They passed from the first round against VPS Vaasa with a 6-2 total score and they had also no problems at the next qualifying round where they met Shirak from Armenia with a total score of 4-0.
To the domestic league, AIK stands in 6th place with 17 games already played, but only 5 points behind the top. Generally they have the best home record in the Allsvenskan (8-1-0) and by far the best attack of the league with 27 goals.
Atromitos finished 3rd in the Greek playoff round so they start in the 3rd qualifying round of Europa League. Now they have a new coach, Mixalis Grigoriou. Their roster is stronger now as they moved considerably in the transfer market. Most of their new players are footballers that know well the Greek reality, and two surprises were defender Bitola from Colon and striker Le Tallec.