Zanka scores on home return

Mathias Zanka secured a dream return to Telia Parken with a neat headed goal as FC Copenhagen claimed their first victory of the new Superliga season yesterday, over FC Nordsjælland.

by Joe Short

Zanka rose above a sea of heads to nod home Pierre Bengtsson’s deep free-kick a minute before half-time before Nicolai Jørgensen secured three points with a superb ranged effort on the hour mark.

Steve de Ridder and Jørgensen went close before Zanka’s header, while Andreas Cornelius saw a golden opportunity smothered by goalkeeper David Jensen in the second half.

FCN earned an injury-time consolation when Kim Aabech benefitted from Stephan Andersen failure to deal with a cross from the right but the Lions held on for the win.

Watch match highlights here on FCKTV

After the game, FCK.dk caught up with manager Ståle Solbakken and the players for their reaction.

Ståle Solbakken 

- I am satisfied with the first 60 minutes, where we created many chances but we were not efficient enough today. After the second goal we hung back too much and kept possession and we got a little messy and lost focus. 

Mathias Zanka Jørgensen 

- Four points from two matches, we will be fine if we can just keep it up the rest of the season! 

Tom Høgli 

- It was great fun to get my ‘real’ debut here at home, I have been looking forward to it and also been a little nervous. But defensively I think we had good control for the first 70 minutes and it was great to get a victory after a disappointing opening game to the season. 

Stephan Andersen 

- Of course I am reasonably annoyed by the goal FCN scored at the end. I changed my mind at the last minute and I went for the punch and got it completely wrong. After all it was important we won, and I think we played solid in defence. But it would have looked better with a 2-0 result.

FC COPENHAGEN: 2 FC NORDSJÆLLAND: 1

FC Copenhagen: Andersen, Høgli, Nilsson, Zanka, Bengtsson, Amankwaa, Amartey, Toutouh, Jørgensen, Cornelius, De Ridder.

FC Nordsjælland: Jensen, Ticinovic, Gregor, Runje, Mtiliga, Bech, Christensen, Maxsø, Vingaard, John, Lindberg.

Goals: Zanka (44’), Jørgensen (60’), Aabech, FCN (90’).

Referee: Jakob Kehlet.