FC Helsingør played a superb match, and almost demolished HB Køge in their own lair, when FCH on Tuesday evening beat the South Zealand side by a whopping 5-0. Callum McCowatt and Tonni Adamsen both became double goalscorers, even though it was Daniel Norouzi who opened the scoring with a header(!).
FC Helsingør started brightly, and the first shot on goal came already after a couple of minutes, when Oliver Kjærgaard and Tonni Adamsen, who had both been given the chance from the start, combined their way through HBK’s midfield press. Oliver ended up on the edge of HB Køge’s box and got his shot away, but he was closed down and his effort went a good distance wide.
In the 8th minute, HB Køge played their way through and put in a good cross into the small box. Nikolaj Hansen cleared with a good header, and Daniel Norouzi won the loose ball. Norouzi sent Lucas Haren away, and Haren drove toward goal. However, an HB Køge defender was with him, and Haren ended up out on the right side. There he played the ball back to Norouzi, who had moved up to the edge of the box, from where he tried to curl the ball into the opposite corner. But Norouzi’s shot went a metre and a half over the goal. Fine build-up play by Norouzi and Haren.
Overall, it was FC Helsingør who controlled most of the play in the first fifteen minutes. After a quarter of an hour, Philip Rejnhold came close with a fine finish after he had won the ball himself in midfield, but Casper Hauervig in the HB Køge goal had read the attempt.
Two minutes later HB Køge won a free kick on the edge of the FCH box after a misunderstanding between the FCH defence and Christoffer Petersen in goal, but Christoffer Petersen cleaned up and tipped the shot over the goal, right up under the crossbar.
When we were just over the 20-minute mark on the clock, HB Køge’s goalkeeper suddenly pulled his leg up in pain and had to be replaced by third-choice goalkeeper Marius Kruse. The substitution took almost five minutes, and on the first passage of play after the stoppage FC Helsingør went ahead.
Lucas Haren cut into the box, and seemed to be open for a shot, but he took one more touch past two men. It looked as though the chance was gone, but Haren got to the ball just before the byline and sent it across the goal. That caught the HB Køge defence out, and on the left side of the goal Daniel Norouzi was left free, and unchallenged he could rise for a rare headed goal.
0-1 FC Helsingør
After that, FC Helsingør dropped back a few metres and looked to play a good through ball. Just after the half-hour mark, the opportunity came. Callum McCowatt found Oliver Kjærgaard in the box with a good diagonal ball, and Kjærgaard took one touch and then played it back into the feet of the advancing McCowatt on the left side of the box. The through ball beat HB Køge’s offside line, and from a tight angle McCowatt confidently placed the ball into the opposite side of the goal.
0-2 FC Helsingør
A few minutes later Christoffer Petersen had to show his talent at the other end. A poor ball out of FCH’s central defence was intercepted, and Jubril Adedeji suddenly had the ball in front of goal. Adedeji tried to place his shot to the right of Christoffer Petersen, but the FCH goalkeeper produced a truly brilliant save, getting down and grabbing the ball with a reflex save at knee height. Excellent save by the stand-in keeper.
Approaching the break, despite the lead, it was the visitors from FC Helsingør who were pressing high. HB Køge were rare guests beyond their own half, and FCH were able to play the ball patiently around among themselves, and had a couple of long-range efforts that were not truly dangerous.
And in first-half stoppage time in 1 we then extended the lead. Tonni Adamsen won an aerial duel on the left side and sent the ball on to Oliver Kjærgaard, who ran to the byline. In the same movement as he had played the ball on, Tonni Adamsen had turned and darted toward goal, and up front he was ready to meet Kjærgaard’s diagonal, low cross, which he guided past the goalkeeper despite a man on his back. Brilliant attacking move from Kjærgaard and Adamsen.
0-3 FC Helsingør
After having thus outplayed the home side in the first half, FC Helsingør could go into the break with a convincing 3-0 lead.
From the start of the second half, FCH continued in the same vein, and only three minutes had been played before the Helsingør side won a free kick straight out in front of HB Køge’s box. Tonni Adamsen sent a good ball over the wall and toward the left side of goal, but Marius Kruse was well positioned and could catch the attempt.
But HB Køge still did not get further up the pitch, and in the 54th minute they paid the price. In HB Køge’s central defence a ball was cleared poorly, and dropped down to the feet of Lucas Haren out on the right side of the box. Lucas looked up once, and calmly sent the ball across the small box with a flat, hard pass that caught Kruse out of the area. Right in front of goal Adamsen could not reach the ball, but at the back post Callum McCowatt was ready to tap it in with a low inside-foot finish.
0-4 FC Helsingør
Tonni Adamsen cannot have been pleased to miss the big chance, and four minutes later Lucas Haren gave him the chance again. Haren went past his man on the edge, and sent a razor-sharp cross low into Adamsen, who got in front of his marker and this time hammered it home past Kruse.
0-5 FC Helsingør
When an hour had been played, the coaching staff took both double goalscorers off and sent David Boysen and Elijah Just onto the pitch.
5-0 goal made FC Helsingør ease off a little, and HB Køge had a spell up to the 70th minute, where they put together a number of good passing moves. It did not really become dangerous, and FC Helsingør were constantly looking for the counterattack that could drive the very last nail into the coffin.
There were efforts from both Davis Boysen and Lucas Haren, but neither became dangerous. After 74 minutes Lucas Haren was replaced by Liam Jordan, after more than a decent day at the office.
FCH took a deep breath and pressed a little higher up the pitch over the next ten minutes, which immediately produced a couple of dangerous situations, where Holst and Liam Jordan could send crosses into the box, but HB Køge managed to repel them on several occasions. HB Køge only managed sporadic attacks, and FC Helsingør were quite happy to play the ball around among themselves and look for the through ball.
The pattern of the match continued into stoppage time, where FCH still had the ball, and most of the action took place in HB Køge’s half. Only two minutes were added, and when the referee’s whistle sounded for the last time, FC Helsingør could walk off the pitch after one of the most convincing performances of the season, and with a solid contribution to the goal tally, which is now better than the direct rival for 4th place: FC Fredericia. Already on Sunday, however, FC Helsingør can themselves put decisive distance between themselves and FC Fredericia, when the Jutland side come to visit Helsingør Stadium. It is at 15.00, and ticket sales are open.
FCH: C. Petersen, F. Bay (’84 N. Mouritsen), N. Hansen (’45 A. Holst), N. Geertsen, P. Rejnhold, D. Norouzi, F. Juul Christensen, C. McCowatt (’62 E. Just), O. Kjærgaard, L. Haren (’74 L. Jordan), T. Adamsen (’62 D. Boysen)
Photo: Claus Birch, clausbirch.dk
