BORÅS. One by one, Elfsborg’s entire offensive trio was forced to throw in the towel.
Nevertheless, they won 3–1 – and broke Malmö FF’s winning streak.
This followingnoon Elfsborg plays once morest Malmö FF in Borås. Several changes are then made in both teams.
As you know, Elfsborg have both regular centre-backs Sebastian Holmén and Terry Yegbe suspended. Substitutes are Gustav Henriksson and Ibrahim Buhari.
Johan Dahlin, Derek Cornelius and Jens Stryger Larsen are resting in MFF. The replacements will be Ricardo Friedrich, Elison Makolli and Martin Olsson.
Already in the sixth minute, Elfsborg’s striker Per Frick sat down and was also forced to change. Jalal Abdullai came into play instead.
After a quarter played, the home team got into a good conversion position through Simon Hedlund, who finished. However, Ricardo had no major problems gluing the ball. On an MFF corner in the 22nd minute, it became dangerous when Isaac Kiese Thelin nodded, but Elfsborg cleared the situation.
In the 34th minute, Arber Zeneli appeared to dribble away himself, but the 29-year-old regained control of the ball and fired 1-0 to Elfsborg behind Friedrich.
Just before the break, Martin Olsson had a great chance to equalize from close range, but the finish went wide of the goal frame. Elfsborg’s odd-goal lead stood at the break.
At the end of the first half, goalscorer Arber Zeneli took a groin injury. After the break, he was also replaced in favor of Ahmed Qasem.
At the beginning of the second half, the visitors had a lot of the ball and pressed Elfsborg down, but had difficulty getting to concrete dangers in an offensive way.
Instead, it was the home team that scored the next goal in the match. In the 64th minute, Simon Hedlund slotted in beautifully to make it 2-0 and MFF’s uphill climb was steep.
Soon following, Hedlund also sat down. Third injury for the home team – and suddenly the entire offensive starting trio had thrown in the towel. Camil Jebara entered the game.
The uphill climb would be even steeper for the guests. In the 74th minute, Martin Olsson was responsible for an obvious own goal when he steered it 3-0 via the post and into the net with his leg.
With ten minutes left in regular time, Sebastian Jörgensen pushed the ball into the roof of the net and reduced the score to 3–1. However, the Skåne did not get closer than that and the result stood the match, which meant MFF’s first loss this season.
Startelvor:
Elfsburg: Bundgaard – Larsson, Henriksson, Ibrahim, Hult – Ouma, Baidoo, Baldursson – Hedlund, Frick, Zeneli.
Malmö: Friedrich – Makolli, Jansson, Olsson – Ali, Rosengren, Peña, Nanasi, Busanello – Kiese Thelin, Botheim.
***
