FCK - Brøndby 3-1 (1-0)
F.C. Copenhagen cruised on to their seventh victory in the last eight Super League-games with a comfortable 3-1-win against struggling Brøndby, who is currently seventh in the table and half way through the season seems to be out of the title race.
Only five days after the glorious and physical demanding performance against Manchester United, Ståle Solbakken only made one change in the line up, bringing on the versatile William Kvist at left back in stead of Oscar Wendt. Brøndby – with Marcus Lantz banned and 7-8 injured players - had to bring in a couple of youngsters in midfield and send the normal winger Thomas Rasmussen up front. Furthermore head coach René Meulensteen had to return to Holland due to illness in his nearest family.
However, Brøndby opened the game best in front of over 35.000 spectators in the cold, pouring November-rain, but after 10-15 minutes the home team took over – and never let go. Still it was rush hour in the centre of the field, but gradually Copenhagen began to produce chances as Hutchinson and Berglund went close. And just before the half hour the dominance resulted in the logic lead: Michael Silberbauer took one of his famous rushes down the Brøndby half, and in exactly the right moment he stuck the ball between two Brøndby-defenders to Marcus Allbäck, who hammered it home with a dry, low left footer form the edge of the area.
A more consistent referee than Claus Bo Larsen could easily have given a penalty for two or three Brøndby-attempts to rip the shirts of Gravgaard og Hangeland, as Copenhagen produced corner after corner and put Brøndby under heavy siege. Among others Hangeland could easily have added a second, when he finished from 7 meters, but between friends and enemies keeper Ankergren somehow managed to block the shot.
Hangeland with an effort
A bit misleading Brøndby was only one goal behind as the two teams left the battered pitch after 45 minutes of massive Copenhagen dominance. Brøndby sent on Martin Ericsson from the begging of the second half, and even though he added more creativity to their midfield, Copenhagen did not intend to loosen their tight grip of the game. Even though Brøndby are in the middle of a historic crisis – not winning for 7 league games in a row – these local derbies are always something special, and you can’t lean back on a one-goal lead and play it safe.
Solbakken knew this, so he urged his boys to go forward, and 20 minutes after the break he got what he wanted: Silberbauer found Berglund on the edge of the area, and while Hutchinson disturbed the Brøndby-defence by running clear on his right side, Berglund cleverly laid the ball over to the left, where Allbäck timed his run perfectly, and “The United Killer” coolly chipped the ball over Ankergren to double the lead.
That practically settled it, but just to make it completely safe Martin Bergvold – who had replaced Berglund after the second goal – added a third a few minutes later following a good run by Hutchinson.
Atiba Hutchinson about to set up the third goal...
Brøndby copied the substitute-trick, when Henrik Kildentoft came on 15 minutes before the end and immediately after pulled one back with a header from close range that went in from the cross-bar. Until then Jesper Christiansen had kept a clean sheet in impressive 571 minutes of SuperLeague-play.
Brøndby never came close again, and Copenhagen was closer to 4-1 during the last quarter, but it would just have been the icing on the cake. The delighted home fans didn’t miss this golden opportunity to mock their rivals from Brøndby, who is now 15 points behind Copenhagen and will a hard time winning gold or silver, as they’ve gotten use to for the last decade. Copenhagen maintained their no. 1 position three points ahead of FC Midtjylland with a game in hand – these two team meet in PARKEN in two weeks, but before that Copenhagen take on Esbjerg in the Cup on Wednesday night and go to Aalborg on Sunday – without captain Tobias Linderoth, who will be suspended.
Photos by Carl Redhead
Matchfacts:
F.C. Copenhagen-Brøndby 3-1 (1-0)
27.: 1-0 Marcus Allbäck
64.: 2-0 Marcus Allbäck
71.: 3-0 Martin Bergvold
74.: 3-1 Henrik Kildentoft
Attendance: 35.326
F.C. Copenhagen: Jesper Christiansen – Lars Jacobsen, Brede Hangeland, Michael Gravgaard, William Kvist – Michael Silberbauer (84.: Oscar Wendt), Tobias Linderoth, Hjalte Nørregaard, Atiba Hutchinson – Fredrik Berglund (65.: Martin Bergvold), Marcus Allbäck (89.: Razak Pimpong). (Unused substitutes: Benny Gall, Dan Thomassen)
Bookings: Tobias Linderoth and Martin Bergvold.
