FCK two goals off Brøndby century

23/09 2011 09:09

The 75th New Firm derby is set to take place when FC Copenhagen meet Brøndby IF on Saturday. Should FCK score twice in the tie at the Brøndby Stadium, the club will have clocked up 100 goals against their rivals.

by Joe Short

Copenhagen and Brøndby have met 74 times, with FCK winning 34, drawing 16 and losing 24 of them. With an aggregate score of 98-90 in Copenhagen’s favour, the Lions have the slight historical advantage going into the tie.

Copenhagen’s top scorers against BIF over the years are Lars Højer Nielsen and Sibusiso Zuma, who both have seven goals to their names. Marcus Allbäck is in third with six goals.

It has been a while now since Brøndby inflicted defeat upon FCK, for we must go back to Jan Kristiansen's lone strike in August 2008 to find the last three points in BIF’s favour. Since that showdown – and here we are talking eight games since – Copenhagen have mustered 20 points from a possible 24 against their rivals, with six wins and two draws.

Last season's games against Brøndby

Copenhagen recorded two wins and a draw against BIF last season. The season's first meeting was played in September 2010, and shortly into the match Thomas Rasmussen fouled Christian Bolaños to concede a penalty. César Santin took the spot kick and from 12 yards put the home side 1-0 ahead. Santin bagged his second goal in the second half to secure a 2-0 victory over BIF.

In spring 2011 the two clubs met again. Nicolaj Agger scored to give Brøndby the lead in the first half. However, two minutes into the second half Santin pounced to level the scores. With just over 20 minutes to go, Dame N’Doye broke through to make it 2-1, and in the dying seconds Jesper Grønkjær popped up and added a third.

The final game between the two clubs came in early May at the Brøndby Stadium. By this point Copenhagen had already wrapped up their third league title in a row, and had nothing but pride to play for. Dame N'Doye gave FCK an early lead before Remco van der Schaaf equalised. No further goal could be forced in the 1-1 draw.

Brøndby this season

Brøndby added a few high-profile players to their squad during the summer transfer window. In came Mikkel Thygesen, Femi Ajilore and Dennis Rommedahl. It can be assumed they hoped for better than ninth place in the league after nine games therefore. It must be said however that Rommedahl has only made two Superliga appearances this season, while Ajilore is suspended for Saturday’s match.

In the first nine games of this season's Superliga, Brøndby have won two matches, drawn three and lost four. Last week they suffered their third defeat of the season to FC Nordsjælland, losing 2-0 in Farum.

Brøndby’s four defeats have been to AC Horsens (1-4), OB (1-2), FC Midtjylland (1-2) and FC Nordsjælland (0-2). The three drawn games were against AaB (2-2), SønderjyskE (2-2) and AGF (0-0), while their two victories came over Silkeborg (1-0) and HB Køge (5-0).

BIF have scored 13 goals this season in the Superliga: Thygesen has four and Michael Krohn-Dehli three. Martin Bernburg also has a couple.

Brøndby have, like Copenhagen, got off to a good start in the DBU Cup where they were in action on Wednesday night. The team met Elite 3000 from Elsinore: Krohn-Dehli putting the away side 1-0 up after just three minutes. Brent McGrath increased the lead to 2-0 in the second half, and the Australian netted a second for 3-0 fifteen minutes before time. Three minutes later Krohn-Dehli sealed the match with a final goal for 4-0.