It ended in an unfortunate 2-0 defeat against AC Horsens, when FC Helsingør visited CASA Arena in central Jutland on Saturday afternoon.
Horsens played from the start according to their classic game plan with lots of set pieces and long throw-ins. It was close to getting dangerous after a few minutes, when Nicolas Mortensen had to save a header on the line, of course after a set piece.
After 11 minutes, Søren Henriksen got to a loose ball on the edge of the box and delivered a precise cross, but Horsens just managed to get a saving head to it before Nicolas Mortensen could get his head on it. But close for Helsingør.
After a quarter of an hour, it went wrong for the Helsingør men. From a free kick, ACH put the ball into the box, Mikkel Bruhn came out, but could not prevent a Horsens player from prolonging the ball, and then the tall Simon Okosun could unchallenged head the ball in, even though Holst was close to reaching the ball on the line.
1-0 AC Horsens.
After 22 minutes, Ricki Olsen found Anders Holst in the box. He struck hard, and ACH's Joronen had to spill a rebound, but unfortunately Adnan Mohammad could not get there in time. The ball was cleared out to TK, but his half-volley went over the goal.
Horsens dominated the physical battle, while Helsingør were slightly better in possession. FCH did, however, give away far too many set pieces in this phase. But after half an hour, FC Helsingør strung together a good series of passes up the middle, which ended with the ball being played to Anders Holst on the edge of the box, but his fine shot went just over the crossbar.
After just 40 minutes, Finnbogason broke away on a counterattack and freed himself in the box with a clever dribble, but Holm came down and blocked at the last second.
When 41 minutes had been played, it all went completely wrong on a counterattack, as Ricki Olsen brought down an ACH player on the edge of the box. Olsen was shown a red card and had to make the long walk off. From the ensuing free kick, Mikkel Bruhn saved two huge shooting chances in two attempts, but on the final rebound today's captain Andreas Holm tried to clear the ball out of the box and unfortunately hit Horsens' Finnbogason, and the ball ended up in the net.
2-0 AC Horsens
With that cold shower, FC Helsingør went into halftime trailing 2-0 and down to ten men.
The second half started in the same pattern as the first. Horsens dominated physically, but had little of the play. FC Helsingør tried to get their game flowing, but constant fouls and interruptions broke up much of the build-up play. Chances were very scarce for either team, and Helsingør got a little better control of Horsens' set pieces and corners.
Helsingør brought on Morten Hegaard right after the break in place of Nicolas Mortensen, and Matheus Leiria made his Superliga debut in the 42th minute, when he replaced Osama Akharraz. Horsens retreated a little further in this phase, and FC Helsingør moved the ball around nicely. After just over an hour played, the challenging Adnan Mohammad, who was one of the better players on the day, broke away on a counterattack, but his otherwise fine finish was saved in two attempts by ACH's Joronen.
This was followed by a spell marked by battle in midfield and cautious play, where AC Horsens sat deep and let the Helsingør players have the ball a lot, without it becoming dangerous for that reason. It was thus not until the 83th minute that AC Horsens' Jeppe Mehl got free on the left side of FCH's box, but he ended up at a slightly too acute angle, and his shot went into the side netting.
Matheus Lieria showed signs of his fine ball control on several occasions, and after 86 minutes he somehow dribbled past two Horsens defenders and was free on the byline, but his attempt to find an FCH player with a backward pass was blocked at the very last moment by an ACH foot.
Towards the end, both FC Helsingør and AC Horsens had one attempt from long range each, but neither team managed to score again, and so FCH had to throw in the towel and look back on a match in which they had at times been the better team, but where sharpness in the boxes had made the difference.
