Late drama on spring season return

In his first competitive match in charge of FC Copenhagen, new head coach Carsten V. Jensen had an almost fully fit squad to choose from against an Aalborg side backed by vocal home support.

by Joe Short

After a series on friendly matches with some of the most prominent clubs in Eastern Europe, FCK were more than ready to get back into Superliga action after a long winter break. Dame N’Doye – fresh off international duty with Senegal in midweek – started up front, while Icelandic captain Sölvi Ottesen, who played almost 90 minutes for his country on Wednesday, started at the back with debutant Kris Stadsgaard.

Both sides proved how a long winter break can hamper and rhythm generated in the autumn, the only chance of the opening ten minutes being an Anders Due free kick sent wide of Johan Wiland’s goal. Thomas Delaney got round the back of the AaB defence five minutes later, but his final ball missed three men in the box.

AaB began to dominate after 20 minutes, and would have taken the lead were it not for a strong Wiland right hand. The FCK captain pushed away a fierce Nicklas Helenius volley after Thomas Augustinussen flicked on a cross on the edge of the area.

Delaney close after Larsen spill

On 24 minutes Chris Rolfe found space on AaB’s right wing, but his half volley found Wiland’s arms rather than the goal.

After this brief flurry of excitement, the game settled back down to somewhat of a stalemate. Neither side offered much going forward as both defences made sure the ball stayed far away from their respective lines. Only twice did FCK get behind the AaB back four, on either wing, with neither cross threatening Nicolai Larsen’s goal.

No changes were made at half time, but soon after the restart Copenhagen went on the attack and almost broke through when Larsen spilled a high ball a yard from his left-hand post. The ball fell out to Thomas Delaney who hooked an effort on goal, but Henrik Dalsgaard block the effort with his back and shepherded the ball out to safety.

Santin steers header wide

While Copenhagen were struggling to score at one end, they almost did at the other. Lars Jacobsen beat Helenius to a though-ball but instead of laying back to Wiland to punt clear, Jacobsen saw his back-pass miss the FCK keeper and narrowly trickle wide of the right-hand post. A certain let off.

César Santin should have opened the scoring just after the hour mark with a diving header from the middle of the box. The Brazilian beat his man to get on the end of Christian Bolaños’ curling ball, but could only direct his effort wide of goal.

With 23 minutes remaining CV made a double substitution in effort to inject some flare into the Copenhagen side. Mustafa Abdellaoue and Martin Vingaard came on for Santin and Christian Grindheim, and not soon after did debutant Stadsgaard advance up the field to shoot into the gloves of Larsen.

Drama late on

Both teams continued to push but the back-to-season rustiness was evident as chances came few and far between. Indeed, it was not until 90 minutes that N’Doye came close from a corner kick but couldn’t convert the effort off his thigh.

Four minutes into stoppage time the Lions stole the lead and looked to have claimed all three points. N’Doye finished off a wonderful flowing move started by Abdellaoue on the left, who played inside to Vingaard. The winger’s cross to the far post found N’Doye, who rose high to head in what was surely the winning goal.

However, a full nine minutes into stoppage time Helenius bagged the goal he’d been searching for all evening. Picking up the ball on the edge of the box, the striker went for glory and certainly found it, his effort leaving Wiland with no chance of stopping the equaliser.

There was just enough time for N’Doye to force a neat final save out of Larsen before referee Michael Johansen brought a rusty yet climactic game to an end. With the draw, Copenhagen stay four points ahead at the top of the Superliga table. Next for FCK is the visit of SønderjyskE back in PARKEN, before a further home clash against FC Midtjylland.

AaB: 1 FC COPENHAGEN: 1

AaB: Larsen, Kristensen, Petersen, Nielsen, Ahlmann Augustinussen, Rolfe, Wurtz, Due, Dalsgaard, Helenius.

FC Copenhagen: Wiland(C), Jacobsen, Ottesen, Stadsgaard, Oviedo, Claudemir, Grindheim, Bolaños, Delaney, Santin, N’Doye.

Goals: N’Doye (90+4’), Helenius, AaB (90+9’)

Referee: Michael Johansen