In many ways, it was a really bad day for AB Gladsaxe today on Funen. The match against Middelfart ended in a 1-0 defeat in a battle, where AB had enough games and chances to bring home points. Tobias Hageltorn s river red after two yellow cards, the coach’s bench received two yellow cards and a red card. Be Mostof all, Marco Ramkilde was badly injured, and he had to be supported from the field with great pain.
There were two changes in today’s starting eleven compared to last week’s match against Aarhus Fremad. Ægir Jarl Jónasson and Pachanga Kristensen were back in the starting line-up after starting out in the last battle. They replaced a quarantined Steven Simpson as well as Tobias Hageltorn, who started on the bench.
AB started with Albert Gaub-Jacobsen at the goalkeeper position, in central defense were Noah Ibsen and Pachanga Kristensen, in the right defense side was Adrien Koudelka, Steven Simpson replaced him, and on the left side Rasmus Brodersen. In the central midfield, Søren Ilsøe (C) and Agust Hlynsson. PThe wingers were O’Vonte Mullings and Casper Grening. At the top, Ægir Jarl played for the first time Jónasson, and he was accompanied by Noah Engell.
It was a very even start, with both teams trying to get the game over on their own page. It was two teams that wanted to get on the field, and that gave some opportunities. It was appreciated by the 567 spectators who attended the match.
Occasionally, AB played with many and long passes up against the front players. AB also had a number of diagonal passes, which today were not always spot on.
AB succeeded in a number of situations in pressuring Middelfart to make mistakes in their play from the defense. It was also AB, who had the best opportunities to score in the 1st half. Already after three minutes f Noah Engell made a nice pass and wasclose to running away from his keeper, but he took too long a dribble, and the ball was taken away from him.
Middelfartgot the chance shortly after when they got to the back line, but the finish was taken by Albert Gaub-Jacobsen. Shortly after, AB’s defense was pushed too far to one side, and a Middelfart player stood free and had the chance, but he shot past the goal.
Ægir Jarl Jónasson also had to see his shot go past the goal after a good pass from Noah Ibsen. A few minutes later, Noah Engell had to Again see Middelfart’s goalkeeper snatch the ball from him when he tried to go around him.
Both O’Vonte Müllings and Noah Engell got the chance to take advantage of good pressure, but they could not convert the effort into goals. Middelfart wanted to be involved again and had opportunities on corner kicks. Albert Gaub-Jacobsen saved one of them, while the other corner kick sailed past. It was therefore an even 1st half, and should one of the teams have had a lead,it would have been AB.
After the break, AB again played their way to a good opportunity, but despite a really good pass from Noah Engell to Casper Grening, who had been searched into the box, Casper Grening failed to score.
Middelfart defended well, and quickly came forward when AB lost the ball. EFter 54 minutes fIk Middelfart corner kick, the ball wasv not cleared away, and Middelfart’s Lasse Thomsen were completely uncovered and could score to make it 1-0. It could have ended differently if Pachanga Kristensen Shortly after had scored on a really good header, but the goalkeeper saved on the line.
With 20 minutes left of regular playing time, three substitutions came. Yael Liesdek replaced Adrien Koudelka, Tobias Hageltorn came in instead of Agust Hlynsson and Marco Ramkilde replaced Casper Grening.
After the substitutions, AB quickly put pressure on Middelfart’s defense, and it ended with a corner kick that Rasmus Brodersen shot. The ball ended up in the goal, but the ball had been out behind the back line before it landed in the box, and the goal was therefore cancelled.
Shortly after, Middelfart finished with a good shot, but Albert Gaub-Jacobsen delivered a class save and tippedthe ball onto the crossbar. Riposten thante by a free Middelfart player, who however managed to shoot far over the goal.
At the end of the match, Mikkel Brund replaced Søren Ilsøe. ABdidn’t get a few more chances to score, when Noah Ibsen sentagood header into the ground towards Middelfart’s goal, but the goalkeeper wasquickly down and was able to grab the ball.
The same happened in overtime for Marco Ramkilde, who shortly after was tackledhard and hadto be helped off the field. Everyone wishes agood and speedy recovery to Marco, who was just on his way back in good shape after a period of injury.
Captain Søren Ilsøe said after the game that everyone was disappointed, but that it was now time to use the last eight games to train, learn and continue to improve:
“We are disappointed, 100%. We work really hard and we come up with chances where we feel we should be ahead by a couple of goals. When we don’t score, the momentum turns a bit. They score on a corner kick and that was a shame. We throw everything forward and do everything we can, but the ball just doesn’t want to go in.”
We played a little differently today, and tried to put on a strong duelplays up front in their five-man defensive line. It worked well, for Ægir vanThere were a lot of duels in the beginning, and it also turned into a big chance for Noah Engell. So we had made some tactical changes for the game, and I think it worked well enough – we just should have scored a couple of goals. Now we have eight games left, where we have to get better every time, so we are ready for the start of the season,” Søren Ilsøe concludes.
After the game, head coach Joey Gudjonsson was pleased with the effort, but frustrated that no goals were scored.
“It’s disappointing that we lost today against Middelfart, because we had so many chances in the first half. There were three, maybe four times where we broke their defence and were alone with their goalkeeper, but a wrong decision was made or the finish wasn’t good enough. Had we scored the first goal, it would of course have been a completely different game.
After they scored, it was really hard to get through. But the players didn’t give up, and we did score a goal, but it was disallowed – I think maybe , It was because the ball was out of play. We kept going and we had some headers that could have gone in, but we couldn’t get the ball in the net today.
I am satisfied with the players’ effort and attitude, because it is very difficult to come here to Middelfart and get a good result. They have a good defence and a good striker up front. We should have defended better when they got a corner kick, because we had players well placed in the box, but there was one of our players who was not aware of the riposte and Middelfart could easily kick the ball in.
Apart from that, they didn’t have many finishes inside the goalframe – yes in the end, but there we also had many players forward, but luckily Gaub saved the finish.
It’s frustrating because we put a lot of energy into the game to make it difficult for the opponent, we limited their opportunities and we had the chances to close the game in the first half – it didn’t work out in our favour.”
The next match will be played on Friday 2 May 2025 at 19:00 against Skive at Gladsaxe Stadion.
