At Gladsaxe Stadium, AB Gladsaxe played today, Saturday 19 April, the first of ten matches in the promotion play-offs. 514 spectators attended the match, where Aarhus Fremad could leave the field with a 2-0 victory. AB played a good game, really pressed Aarhus Fremad throughout the game and could have deserved to get points.
There were two changes in today’s starting eleven compared to last week’s match against Aarhus Fremad. Adrien Koudelka replaced Pachanga Kristensen and Søren Ilsøe started in midfield instead of Ægir Jarl Jónasson. Both Ægir Jarl Jónasson and Pachanga Kristensen took their places on the bench. Søren Ilsøe took over the captain’s armband.
AB started with Albert Gaub-Jacobsen at the goalkeeper position, in central defense were Noah Ibsen and Adrien Koudelka. On the right side of the defense was Steven Simpson and on the left side Rasmus Brodersen. In central midfield were Søren Ilsøe and Agust Hlynsson and on the wings O’Vonte Mullings and Casper Grening. At the top, Tobias Hageltorn and Noah Engell Christensen played.
With 20 minutes left of regulation time, Ægir Jarl Jónasson came on the field and replaced Agust Hlynsson and Marco Ramkilde came on the field and replaced Tobias Hageltorn.
AB started the game with a good expression, and it was clear that AB was keen to start the game better than the last game in Aarhus. It didn’t take more than a minute before AB got an opportunity, when a good pressure sent the ball to Noah Engell, but the ball was parried before he could finish.
Aarhus Fremad tried a through ball between two defenders, but the finish was taken care of by Albert Gaub-Jacobsen.
Throughout the match, Aarhus Fremad played with a massive five-man back line. Both teams tried to get on the game and get control of the game. AB had the ball a lot and came up with chances.
O’Vonte Mullings received a good pass and got ahead of his direct opponent and into the box, where from the outside it looked like a penalty, but the referee’s whistle was silent. AB continued with good crosses and headers by Tobias Hageltorn and Noah Engell, but both attempts went past the goal.
Agust Hlynsson sent a good shot towards Aarhus Fremad’s goal, but the attempt was averted. Noah Engell had a great chance and was free in front of goal, but his finish went past the goal.
Aarhus Fremad took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Mathias Nordestgaard Kubbel.
AB played on undeterred and did not let themselves be knocked out. Towards the break, both teams had opportunities, where the biggest chance fell to AB, when Rasmus Brodersen finished. The shot was saved on the line by an Aarhus Fremad player.
AB came out for the 2nd half with the same players who started the match. AB pressed high on the pitch from the start, forcing Aarhus Fremad back. The high pressure resulted in three corner kicks, which had the potential to score.
An energetic rebound after a set-up error from AB was averted in two rounds by AB’s Rasmus Brodersen and Noah Ibsen. Under a massive AB pressure with just under ten minutes left, Aarhus Fremad got a conversion, and a couple of Aarhus Fremad players ran directly towards AB’s goal. After a tenacious rebound, O’Vonte Mullings and Steven Simpson couldn’t tackle the ball away, and a great chance arose for a finish close to the goal. In the attempt to avert the situation, Søren Ilsøe was unlucky and made a penalty, which Aarhus Fremad’s Sebastian Denius scored on to make the score 2-0.
AB was still pressing and was constantly trying to get chances. Casper Grening tried with a good shot, but Aarhus Fremad’s goalkeeper saved. Noah Engell got the last chance of the game with a shot, but unfortunately quite close to the goal.
After the game, captain Søren Ilsøe said that he thought the match showed that AB can play against all teams.
“I don’t think the result reflects the game. I think that compared to last week, we come out to the game with a really good expression. We dominate for large parts of the match. Some of the judge’s rulings certainly don’t go our way and it could have looked different if they had.”
“We get a lot of good chances, and physically we are above them. You can see that they are playing at the top of the table. They win the games where they also have a hard time. We push them throughout the game. Not least in the second half, where we really put pressure on them. There they are cynical.”
“Even though they don’t have momentum and don’t have many chances, they still score two goals – credit to them – but I definitely think we can take something positive from the game. We show that we can play against all teams, regardless of whether they are number one or number five.”
“So we have to – like today – just come with the same expression and be intense in our style of play, then there are points waiting for us”, Søren Ilsøe concludes.
Head coach Joey Gudjonsson saw several positive things in the performance:
“I think we did a lot of good things today. It is obvious that it is more difficult when we play against the team that is currently at the top of the table. They did well, and it was hard to break them down. They defended with a very solid five-back line and a good goalkeeper.”
“We played our way to some opportunities, and there could have been a penalty for us and a red card for them. We had a shot that was cleared on the line. We had opportunities to play our way into the game, but at the same time we had chances to score, so I don’t think we did enough to penetrate their defence.”
“We did that a lot in the 2nd half, especially on our right side, where Casper Grening was unlucky a couple of times and became offside. The referee gave us a free kick, where we were otherwise free in the box, so of course the chance was stopped. So we created chances, but we couldn’t get the ball in the goal today. The players went to the point, even though we were down 1-0 and we felt resistance, we played well.”
“We played a bit naïve when Aarhus Fremad got a changeover, because even though there were several of us at home in defence, we couldn’t avert the situation and we committed penalties. It was a killing blow for us, because I felt we could easily have equalized,” Joey Gudjonsson concludes.
The next match will be played on Saturday 26 April 2025 at 14:00 away against Middelfart.
