FC Helsingør had most of the play, and several good chances, but still had to accept a 0-1 defeat in the home match against Thisted.
It was FC Helsingør who controlled things for much of the first half, and in the opening quarter they played the ball around well with many short, precise passes. However, there were not so many big open chances, as Thisted were content to sit deep and play on the counter up to their fast top scorer Tukiainen.
After a quarter of an hour, FCH had their first shot. Carl Lange got the ball in behind on the left side, cut inside to the edge of the box and struck at goal. However, there was not quite enough power in the shot, and Thisted goalkeeper Rosenørn was able to catch it.
Three minutes later, FCH swarmed around Thisted’s goal, but Thisted won the ball and broke away on a counterattack. The ball was played across to a Thisted player on the right side, who finished decisively. The hard and tricky shot was close to deceiving Mikkel Bruhn, but the big goalkeeper managed to tip the ball upward and could then claim it himself.
After 20 minutes, Thisted launched yet another counterattack, and this time the ball was played from the right side to the left where Laurits Sørensen was completely free. He headed toward goal from a tight angle instead of bringing the ball down, but Mikkel Bruhn was alert and managed to tip the shot away. Thisted were pressing in this phase.
Eight minutes later, FCH were close. After a corner, the ball was cleared out of the box. Frederik Bay ran onto the ball and hit it first time. The hard and accurate shot, however, was just a little too close to goalkeeper Rosenørn, who got fingertips to it. Big chance.
After 35 minutes, Jonas Henriksen was close to getting on the scoresheet. FCH once again played the ball neatly around the Thisted penalty area, and the ball was played into Willumsen, who finished straight into a block. After a bit of ping-pong, the ball ended up with Henriksen, who had drifted in from the right side, and he smashed at the ball, but again the shot was stopped on the line. But it was FC Helsingør who were in the driving seat here as halftime approached. However, they could not break the deadlock, and the teams went into the break as they had started: with 0-0 on the scoreboard.
The second half was only three minutes old when a Thisted player received the ball played straight to his feet by the FCH defense. He shot promptly, but the attempt went over the goal.
Otherwise, the pattern of play from the start of the second half was the same as it had been in the first. FC Helsingør pressed high, and Thisted kept many men behind the ball and looked for counters to their fast front runners.
However, it was not from a counterattack that the visitors took the lead after 56 minutes, but from a set piece. Pascal Gregor followed a ball toward the byline, heavily pressed by a Thisted player, but referee Jesper Nielsen awarded a corner. There top scorer Tukiainen rose highest and headed the ball unavoidably past Mikkel Bruhn from close range.
0-1 Thisted.
FC Helsingør played and played, but had more than the usual difficulty finding holes in the compact Thisted defense. We had to go all the way to the 70th minute before FCH got a big chance. Nicolas Mortensen had been substituted on and had run into the box. There he was incredibly close to getting a touch on a shot from Anders Holst and deceiving the goalkeeper, but the ball did not quite get enough curl and Rosenørn was able to claim it.
A couple of minutes later, Carl Lange got past his marker on the left side and placed the ball low and precisely into the box. There the young Nicolas Willumsen got to the ball, but he finished straight at the Thisted goalkeeper. Big chance for the young striker, and well set up by Lange.
FC Helsingør brought on Martin Fisch and pushed Andreas Holm up front, which led to a couple of half-dangerous situations, but nothing that truly threatened. Instead, it was very close to Thisted extending their lead after 83 minutes, when Christian Mortensen got past his marker and placed the ball low into the edge of the box, where Laurits Sørensen shot from the far corner, but overhit the shot, which crawled past the post.
Just before the clock reached the 90 minute mark, it was very, very close to Nicolas Mortensen scoring when he cheekily struck the ball with his heel from a corner, but, typical of the day and the match, there was a Thisted player on the line who could clear the shot.
Thus the Helsingør players had to watch the clock run out and note a defeat of 0-1 in a match where they probably deserved more, but where sharpness was lacking.
FCH: Bruhn, Bay (81. Roepstorff), Holm, Gregor, Henriksen, Olsen, Basse (66. Mortensen), Lange, Holst, Matheus (Fisch 75.), Willumsen.
Referee: Jesper Nielsen
