Tonight’s clash represented history in the making for both sides, but the very first half of European club football from either Mjallby or an Andorran side in any competition proper wasn’t particularly memorable.
That said, Inter didn’t look entirely out of place, with good pieces of improvisation from David Lopez and Faysal Chouaib just after the half-hour mark, though they ultimately came to nothing. Even with the mitigation of playing roughly 140km away from their Strandvallen home due to UEFA regulations, Mjallby were disappointing, managing just a single effort on target for the entirety of the opening 45 minutes.
A major improvement was required in the second half if Mjallby were to successfully halt their winless competitive streak at 10 games, and they re-emerged looking far more purposeful, finally hitting the front when Javi Diaz spilled a Jeppe Kjaer shot into the path of Jacob Bergstrom, who easily tapped in at close range to write the latest piece of Mjallby folklore for the player they signed when playing in Sweden's third tier.
While there was more than a hint of fortune about it, the goal itself came with a good omen, as Mjallby had ended up winning in 20 of his previous 23 goalscoring appearances prior to tonight.
Now fully in their stride, Mjallby virtually ensured that there would be another victory to add to that record, as they doubled their lead on 65 minutes, when Axel Noren headed in via a ranging cross from Abdullah Iqbal at the far post.
From there, Mjallby were happy to defend and avoid taking too many risks, meaning that they opened the league phase with a welcome victory that also gave Inter a reality check, after going unbeaten in their final five Conference League qualifiers.