AB Gladsaxe will play the first leg of the promotion play-offs tomorrow, Sunday 14 April 2024. It is the 2nd division’s absolute top team Esbjerg fB, who visit Gladsaxe Stadium with the match starting at 14:00. Esbjerg fB is no. 1 with 59 points and AB occupies 6th place with 24 points. The last match between the two teams took place on 10 March 2024, where AB lost 2-1 at Blue Water Arena. AB’s goal was put in by Tim Freriks in the 88th minute.
Tim Freriks is serving his last day of quarantine against Esbjerg fB due to the direct red card he received against Fremad Amager on April 1. This triggered two quarantine days. Esbjerg fB won their last match in the regular season with 2-0 against Skive, and it was a result that helped AB to remain in the TOP-6. As you know, AB lost 3-1 at home against Middelfart.
Head coach David Roufpanah said after Saturday’s training: “There will be a period now in the promotion game where we will try to get as many points as possible so that we can also move higher up the table. The matches will be a combination of developing the team for the future and at the same time trying everything we can to win the matches. We have worked a lot on our attacking play and on creating chances. It is a process and we will have to see how much we can do tomorrow. There are 10 really good games waiting for us. So it’s a really good opportunity to develop and take more points than we have done in the first part of the season. We played a really good 2nd half when we played in Esbjerg in March. We have the feeling that if we get a better start this time, then we have good opportunities for points. Of course, we know that Esbjerg is a strong team. It will be a good challenge.”
Rasmus Brodersen added: “Tomorrow it will be a game where we have to go beyond the steppes and show that we can beat number one. We have played some good games against Esbjerg the last times we have met them. This time, we just want to get a result out of the effort. We have shown that we can beat the top teams and we will also have to tomorrow. We have to score on our chances, because we have created a lot of chances. The problem is that we haven’t put them in the box.”
Ágúst Hlynsson also had some comments: “Our training effort has been really good overall, and we have trained hard every day. We are looking forward to the match against Esbjerg. We play the coming matches to improve ourselves. We want to show ourselves, our fans and the club the qualities that we have as a team, and that it can lead to us being able to beat teams like Esbjerg. We still have 10 games to play and we have to show that we are good. Even though there is a long way to go to 2nd place, we still have a lot to play for. We owe it to our fans, the club and also ourselves.”
The match will be refereed by Kasper Madsen together with the line judges Ulrik Gøtze and Søren Lehmann.
The selection for the match is:
16 Albert Gaub-Jacobsen (goalkeeper)
3 Erik Lindell
4 Adrien Koudelka
5 Rasmus Brodersen
8 Darren Sidoel
11 Flamur Dzelili
15 Søren Ilsøe
17 Yushi Yamaya
19 Christian Wagner
22 Ágúst Hlynsson
24 Mark Garly Pedersen
25 Filip Mellbin (goalkeeper)
28 Emiliano Gomez
29 Ibrahim Doumbia
30 Julius Lind
34 Mikkel Brund
37 Frederik Lindgaard
88 O’Vonte Mullings
97 Ahmed Hassan
Unavailable players for the match:
99 Jesper Sørensen
40 Hørdur Askham
35 Pachanga Kristensen
6 Daniel A. Pedersen
10 Tim Freriks
9 Emil Mygind
