FCK downed 1-0 in Horsens

29/10 2012 21:12

FC Copenhagen suffered their first defeat of the Superliga season after an entertaining Monday night clash against AC Horsens in Jutland.

by Joe Short

Reserve goalkeeper Kim Christensen was handed a start in between the FCK sticks after it was confirmed Johan Wiland would be out of action for six to eight weeks with a thumb injury. There was only one other change from the XI that drew with Stuttgart in midweek: Andreas Cornelius coming in for Rurik Gislason.

FCK started strong and forced two early corners – the second of which resulted in Claudemir heading a low effort onto the stump of the right-hand post and away to safety. In the same fixture earlier this season FCK’s greatest threat was from high crosses into the box and Cornelius was a clear target from the off.

Horsens had a great chance to take the lead on 12 minutes with André Bjerregaard triggered a blistering counter attack; taking the ball down the Horsens right flank before squaring to Jude Nworuh, who avoided the sliding challenges of Kris Stadsgaard and Ragnar Sigurdsson to stroke his effort onto the base of Christensen’s post and clear. Moments later and Nworuh was played through again but his drilled left-footed shot was well saved by Christensen’s quick feet.

Horsens take the lead

Nworuh continued to be a real threat for Horsens and only the quick thinking of Sigurdsson prevented the home side taking the lead on 25 minutes; while the defender almost did the opposite at the other end when he glanced on a Claudemir long throw but the ball bobbled inches wide of the far post.

Despite his good start, a mistake from Christensen gave Horsens the lead on 34 minutes. The goalkeeper, trying to pass FCK out from their own half, found Steffen Kielstrup instead of a Lions shirt with a direct pass. The striker needed no second chance as he teed up the ball before volleying over Christensen and into the net.

Seconds later Bjerregaard’s low effort clipped Sigurdsson and onto Christensen’s crossbar, bouncing back into play. The resulting rebound fell to Nworuh who struck at goal only to see Stadsgaard deflect the ball wide. At the other end Christian Bolaños beat the offside trap and found himself in front of goal but – instead of shooting – tried to find Cornelius at close range and the ball flew out for a goal kick.

Manager’s comments

At half time head coach Ariel Jacobs told the pitch-side television interviewer:

- I think that we started fairly good but suddenly left the play to our opponents. Only in the last 10 minutes can we be happy because we created much more movement in the team, but our only scoring chances have come from set pieces.

Despite FCK’s slow start Jacobs did not make a change at half time and the game restarted with as much intensity as the first half. Martin Spelmann was the first to test Christensen with a low drive with the outside of his foot, while FCK were lucky Kielstrup couldn’t do better with his distribution after collecting the ball with his back to goal five yards out.

On 64 minutes Christian Grindheim replaced Claudemir and seconds later he played Lars Jacobsen free down the right wing. The captain whipped in a perfect ball for the on-coming Cornelius, who met the cross with real power, but goalkeeper Frederik Rønnow got down and kept hold of it. A minute later Nworuh drilled an effort from the edge of the FCK area into Christensen’s diving body.

The rain started to pour heavily as the match entered a final 20 minutes and after five minutes of even play FCK came close to drawing level on a quick counter attack: Cornelius found the left-hand byline and jinked in-field before shooting at a sea of legs – the ball spilled out to Thomas Kristensen but his effort was blocked away for a corner. Jacobs made an attacking change after the opportunity, bringing on Danny Amankwaa for his Superliga debut in a Lions shirt.

No last-gasp goal this time

Horsens were in no mood to settle down and Lasse Kryger’s miss-kicked cross almost caught Christensen out at his near post, and from the resulting corner Amankwaa spearheaded a counter attack that almost saw César Santin net at the other end. FCK made one final sub on 88 minutes, bringing on Sölvi Ottesen who immediately went up front.

The Lions were handed a lifeline when Mads Agesen picked up his second yellow card in a matter of minutes, tripping Santin on the edge of the box. Yet heroic Horsens defending prevented FCK from getting a clear shot away during five minutes of stoppage time as the home side battled to a 1-0 win in one of the most entertaining games of the season to date.

AC HORSENS: 1 FC COPENHAGEN: 0

AC Horsens: Rønnow, Andersen, Rasmussen, Agesen, Nøhr, Drachmann, Spelmann, Kielstrup, Kortegaard, Bjerregaard, Nworuh.

FC Copenhagen: Christensen, Jacobsen (C), Stadsgaard, Sigurdsson, Bengtsson, Bolaños, Claudemir, Kristensen, Vingaard, Cornelius, Santin.

Goals: Kielstrup, AC Horsens (34’).

Red Cards: Mads Agesen (90’).

Referee: Peter Rasmussen.