Back page Swedish football fans would’ve had a busy week in front of the sofa with Round 4 fixtures being played out over last week, and Round 5 over the weekend.
Goals are again in plenty of supply, with upsets and shocks present too in what continues to be an exciting start to the 2018 Swedish Allsvenskan.
Malmö were held to draws against Sundsvall and AIK after an opening day win against Elfsborg, but succumbed to their first defeat of the season at Djurgårdens last Wednesday, as the current Champions were beaten 3-0 by Özcan Melkemichel’s team.
It was a goalless first half at Djurgårdens’ Tele2 Arena in the capital, but the home side took the lead within a minute of the restart when forward Tinotenda Kadewere pounced on the miscleared ball and smashed it home from close range.
Kadewere added a second with 15 remaining after he met the ball at the back post from a corner, bringing the save from Malmö keeper Johan Dahlin before tucking away the rebound.
Malmö had been guilty of some poor defending so far this season, and the third and final goal was exemplary of that. Goal scorer Kadewere turned provider when he threaded through Dzenis Kozica.
The Swedish midfielder was allowed space on the edge of the box and managed to find the bottom right corner with a curling effort from 20 yards, rounding off an away trip to forget for Malmö.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ZoNrt1U6E
It would’ve been a long old trip back to Malmö for Magnus Pehrsson’s team, but the Champions were back to winning ways on Monday night where they put three goals of their own past Brommapojkarna.
BP have dropped into the relegation zone after successive defeats in Rounds 4 and 5, the first a 2-0 home defeat to Elfsborg. But BP’s travelling fans could feel slightly hard done by after the 3-1 defeat at Malmö, as all three of their goals contained an element of bad luck.
The first goal was scored by Markus Rosenborg who forced a header past Nikola Petric in the BP goal, who possibly could’ve done more to keep the header out.
Bajram Ajeti equalised for BP, somewhat against the run of play after Malmö conceded a soft penalty for some pushing and shoving at a corner.
But Rosenborg got his second of the game five minutes after when the bustling striker struck against BP’s Danish centre half Martin Rauschenburg, the ball looping so unfortunately over a helpless Petric, and into the back of the net for the lead.
With VAR yet to find its way into the Allsvenskan, BP fans were left to gripe after the game over Malmö’s third goal after Carlos Strandberg received the ball in an offisde position before squaring the ball past the still-protesting BP defenders to Soren Rieks who settled the game.
The win boosted the current Champions to seventh place with five points separating them from leaders Hammarby, who remain top after a 2-1 win at home to third place Norrköping, and a 2-2 draw at Häcken.
The Norrkoping encounter was anticipated to be a tough one but the home side had the lead after just three minutes when a swift counter attack presented the league’s top scorer Jiloan Hamad with a sight of goal.
The Swede rattled the cross bar sending the ball high into the air before landing of the head of Muamer Tankovic, who nodded home for the lead.
Norrköping were in search of an equaliser but were again undone by the quick-fire counter attack of Hammarby. Stefan Billborn’s Hammarby have goals coming from everywhere and this one was courtesy of a magnificent solo effort from Pa Dibba.
His second goal in consecutive games, the striker picked up the ball in his own half after a Norrköping corner was cleared, before turning and running at the Norrköping defence with blistering speed and skill to find himself in the opposition box, where he finished with finesse come the half hour mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S54a5hMP6DE
It could easily have been a drubbing for Norrköping if it wasn’t for their young keeper Isak Petterson – the Swede made several saves in both halves to keep the deficit at two.
The visitors found a consolation late on when Simon Thern was in the right place to convert after Johan Wiland made the initial save, but Hammarby proved they can defend as well as they can attack, and held on for all three points.
The team known in Swedish as ‘Bajen’ would next travel to Häcken’s Bravida Arena in Gothenburg.
It was the home side who took the early lead, and much to the shock of its own crowd when Paulinho (not the one you’re thinking of) finished emphatically from six yards out but Hammarby’s summer signing from Randers FC Nikola Djurdic, former Malmö and Partizan forward, scored twice in as many minutes to put Hammarby ahead.
The first came when a flapping Peter Abrahamsson couldn’t catch a corner, and the ball fell invitingly to the big Serb who tapped home at the back stick.
The second came in a more humorous manner when, literally straight from kick off, the ball was played back to Emil Wahlstrom and Djurdic pounced on the half-baked defender and knicked, before converting coolly for the lead.
GIF Sundsvall narrowly avoided relegation last season, but this term they remain unbeaten after four games finding their first victory of the season with a 1-0 win over bottom club Trelleborgs, and coming back from two goals down at Dalkurd to salvage a point.
AIK remain in second place after Henok Goitom mustered a 1-1 draw for ten-man AIK away at Örebro, and goals either side of half time from Stefan Silva and Kristoffer Olsson secured a routine home win against Goteborg on Sunday afternoon.
After the draw with AIK, Örebro made the long trip to the league’s most Northern team, Östersunds. Graham Potter’s side looked to be back on track after a tough opening to the season with a Round 3 victory over Göteborg before a 1-1 draw away at Kalmar in 4.
But Örebro continued their own good start to the season with a 2-0 victory in front of 5,143 people at Östersunds Jamtkraft Arena, leaving Potter’s team in the relegation zone after five games.
Round 6 brings with it another Stockholm derby between Djurgårdens and Hammarby who will face each other at their shared Tele2 Arena, as well as a Gothenburg derby between Göteborg and Häcken.
Round 4 Results
IK Sirius 0-0 BL Häcken
GIF Sundsvall 1-0 Trelleborgs FF
IFK Göteborg 1-0 Dalkurd FF
IF Brommopojkarna 0-2 IF Elfsborg
Djurgårdens IF 3-0 Malmö FF
Kalmar FF 1-1 Östersunds SK
Örebro SK 1-1 AIK
Hammarby IF 2-1 IFK Norrköping
Round 5 Results
Trelleborgs FF 0-1 Kalmar FF
IFK Norrköping 1-0 IK Sirius
Östersunds SK 0-2 Örebro SK
AIK 2-0 IFK Göteborg
Elfsborg 2-0 Djurgårdens IF
Malmö FF 3-1 IF Brommapojkarna
Dalkurd FF 2-2 GIF Sundsvall
BK Häcken 2-2 Hammabry IF
