FC Helsingør had to accept one of the more frustrating defeats when they lost 1-2 to Sønderjyske in Sunday’s early match, in a game where for long periods they were clearly the best team on the borrowed home ground at Right to Dream Park in Farum.
The match started with a big chance for FCH. After just a minute and a half, Bay got into the box and down to the byline. He pulled the ball back at an angle, where Matheus, under heavy pressure, managed to turn and finish, but unfortunately just wide of the post. In the first ten minutes it was FC Helsingør who controlled the play, and especially Felipe Tontini, making his first start, was in fine form with both good through balls and excellent dribbling.
But after a quarter of an hour it went wrong. The ball was lost in midfield, and Sønderjyske launched a counterattack. The ball was tackled out for a corner. Marcel Rømer took the corner, and Anders Egholm rose and headed it untouchably past Mikkel Bruhn. A cold shower for FC Helsingør, who had been clearly the better side up to that point.
0-1 Sønderjyske
When 20 minutes had been played, FC Helsingør got themselves on the scoreboard, sort of. Frederik Bay and Adnan Mohammad combined on Sønderjyske’s left side, and Frederik Bay played a hard cross toward the far post. There stood a completely unmarked Christian ”Greko” Jakobsen, who got a foot to it and directed the ball into the net by the post, with no chance for his own goalkeeper. A rather strange situation, and a rather strange own goal.
1-1 FC Helsingør
Five minutes later Tobias Christensen won a free kick on the left side just outside the box. Patrick Olsen delivered the ball, and Daniel Jørgensen was very close to scoring with a header, but Sønderjyske goalkeeper Mielitz saved the attempt.
After half an hour it went wrong again for FC Helsingør. FCH won a free kick just outside Sønderjyske’s box. Sønderjyske managed to win the ball back immediately, and Simon Poulsen sent in a cross into the area. Christian ”Greko” Jakobsen rose highest and made amends for his own goal by heading the ball in.
1-2 Sønderjyske.
It was still FCH who dominated most of the play in the following quarter of an hour. The home side pressed well, moved the ball around nicely, and constantly swarmed around Sønderjyske’s goal, and on two occasions FCH players also appealed for a penalty. First a Patrick Olsen free kick was blocked in the box by something suspiciously resembling a Sønderjyske arm, and shortly after Tobias Christensen was tripped in the box, but both times referee Jakob Kehlet judged that the offense was not a penalty. Just before the break, a ball was played in from the right side and found Matheus in the box. The Brazilian headed toward the far corner, and Mielitz was beaten, but the good effort just slipped past the post. FC Helsingør could thus go into halftime behind 1-2, but with the knowledge that they had actually been the better team for most of the half.
From the start of the second half, FCH pressed for an equalizer and continued where they had left off in the first. But they failed to play their way to any big chances, even though they kept pushing up around Sønderjyske’s goal, and this phase of the match was more fight than football.
We had to wait until the 65th minute before FCH got their first big chance. After a corner, the ball ended up with Matheus, who turned in the box and, under heavy pressure, fired across goal from the far side. His beautiful effort struck the outside of the post and came back into play, but Helsingør players could not put the rebound in either.
Then followed yet another long spell in which neither team really created chances. There was good running and battling in midfield, and especially Frederik Bay got forward from left back and delivered a number of good crosses, without it ever really becoming dangerous against Sønderjyske’s compact defense.
In the last five minutes of the half, the game opened up a little more, and both FC Helsingør and Sønderjyske were looking to break away on the counter. But when the teams finally reached the boxes, they lacked that final bit of sharpness, and there were thus no shots on target from either the away side or the home side in the last ten minutes.
In stoppage time, the skirmishes continued, and cautions were thus given to both Tobias Christensen and Kees Luijckx after the former had taken down the latter. But the fight did not lead to any further goals or chances, and so FCH had to leave the pitch with an unfortunate 1-2 defeat on the scoreboard.
FC Helsingør: Bruhn, Gregor, Jørgensen, S. Henriksen, Bay, Matheus, Basse, Olsen, Mohammad, Tontini, Christensen
Substitutes: Akharraz, R. Olsen, Mortensen
Photo: Claus Birch, clausbirch.dk
