Strikers see off Esbjerg

Federico Santander and Andreas Cornelius secured a 2-0 win for FC Copenhagen over Esbjerg on Sunday to maintain FCK’s 12-point lead over second-place Brøndby in the Alka Superliga.

The Lions, fresh off Thursday’s 2-1 win over Ajax in the Europa League, took the lead on 54 minutes when Santander beat the offside trap to slide home.

And Cornelius secured the three points in Telia Parken five minutes later when towering above the box to head in Ludwig Augustinsson’s corner.

Copenhagen had chances to score before Santander’s opener, with Benjamin Verbic denied from close range after just six minutes, while Tom Høgli also had a back-post effort cleared off the line.

At the other end Robin Olsen expertly denied Awer Mabil from a tight angle to keep the scores level.

Santander finally broke the deadlock when latching onto a through-ball that was not cleared by the Esbjerg defence and side-footing home past Jeppe Højbjerg.

And minutes later Cornelius got a run on his man to head in Augustinsson’s corner at the near post.

Cornelius was denied a penalty late in the clash when he was brought down by centre-back Andreas Nordvik after latching onto a superb long ball from William Kvist - but referee Peter Kjærsgaard waved away the protests.

The win maintains FCK’s lead at the top of the Superliga table as attention now turns back to Europe.

On Thursday the Lions will face Ajax in Amsterdam knowing even a 1-0 defeat will be enough to progress to the quarter-finals.

FC COPENHAGEN: 2  ESBJERG: 0

FC Copenhagen: Olsen, Høgli, Okore, Johansson, Augustinsson, Kusk, Kvist, Gregus, Verbic, Santander, Pavlovic.

Esbjerg: Højbjerg, Kakabadze, Nordvik, Lauridsen, Hagelskjær, Sørensen, Palsson, Tsimikas, Soder, Mabil.

Goals: Santander (54’), Cornelius (59’).

Referee: Peter Kjærsgaard.