In perhaps this year’s most breathless match of the year, it was the home side from Silkeborg that ended up taking all the spoils. Helsingør left the Superliga with heads held high and fighting until the very end, in a match that once again ended with the margins falling on the opponents’ side.
It was FC Helsingør who started by putting pressure on the home side. The first three minutes took place up around the Silkeborg box, where the Helsingør players played their way to four of TK’s characteristic long throw-ins. The fourth was headed out for a corner, and TK went to the ball. His set piece was perfectly placed for Douglas, who headed hard and downwards, straight from the textbook, and also beat goalkeeper Peter Friis. On the line a Silkeborg defender got there and cleared off the line, but he could not get it any further away than straight into the arms of Matheus, who came charging in, and then the Brazilian could force the ball over the line.
0-1 FC Helsingør
Silkeborg subsequently tried to apply the pressure higher up on Helsingør’s half, and after 10 minutes Jens Martin Gammelby broke through on the right wing. He cut inside and got a shot away, but Mikkel Bruhn came well out of his goal and stopped the attempt.
Two minutes later it was Okkels who got through on the opposite side, and he laid the ball back diagonally into the box, where Gustav Nilsson came storming in. But at the very last moment one of the Helsingør defenders got down and blocked it. Big chance for SIF.
With a quarter of an hour played, FCH won a free kick ten metres inside the opposition half. TK hit it hard and accurately, and found Pascal Gregor, who found a gap between SIF’s defenders, but Gregor unfortunately did not get a proper head to the ball, which almost hit him in the neck, and the ball rolled wide. Otherwise a fine opportunity for FCH’s number 22.
With 20 minutes on the clock, however, the home side really came into the match. Jeppe Okkels drove in from his left wing and struck decisively. His shot curled heartbreakingly beautifully into the top corner just under the crossbar, with no chance for Mikkel Bruhn.
1-1 Silkeborg
Five minutes later Silkeborg also took the lead. A razor-sharp cross from Casper Sloth was delivered perfectly onto the head of Skhritladze, whose powerful header hit the underside of the crossbar and went in. Simple but effective.
2-1 Silkeborg
Shortly after, FCH worked the ball up around the SIF box. The ball was cleared, but dropped to Mikkel Basse, who hit it first time, but Peter Friis just got his fingertips to it and tipped the ball over the goal. A magnificent strike from the midfielder.
After 35 minutes Vladimir Rodic carried the ball forward on the right side with enormous speed, and found Skhirtladze in the middle with a flat pass. In the same movement the striker played the ball back to the now completely free Rodic, but Mikkel Bruhn came out and blocked the shot. Great save by the FCH goalkeeper.
The minute after, FC Helsingør played their way up through the middle. Adnan Mohammad found a surging Mikkel Basse with a through ball in behind, but Basse could not direct his shot, even though he got a toe to it, and then Peter Friis could collect the ball with relatively little pressure.
Neither side created anything further, and so FCH went in at the break behind 2-1, but with the knowledge that just one more goal would be enough to create another chance of survival.
The second half was barely three minutes old before SIF struck again. Jeppe Okkels drove the ball forward through the middle and found Gustav Nilsson, who had drifted out to the left inside the box. Nilsson took a single touch and fired the ball in under Mikkel Bruhn.
3-1 Silkeborg.
After that, Silkeborg dropped quite a bit deeper on the pitch and handed the initiative and much of the play to FC Helsingør. The away side moved the ball around nicely and set up several good combinations, but it did not become truly dangerous until we reached the 64th minute. Adnan Mohammad got past his marker on the left wing and delivered a low cross across the box. Douglas had made exactly the right run here, and all he had to do was put a foot on it to reduce the deficit. Helsingør could also show excerpts of football’s A-B-C.
2-3 FC Helsingør.
The goal fired the home side up a little more, but it was still FCH who looked most likely to score. Matheus worked his way into several crosses from the right side, but Silkeborg defended wisely, and FCH could not get a shot away.
When the stadium clock reached 80 minutes, Silkeborg was centimetres away from extending the lead. A cross from Stefan Pedersen found Nilsson in the six-yard box, and he finished decisively, but Mikkel Bruhn miraculously got down and got a hand to the ball. Colossal save!
A minute later the ball was at the other end and substitute Andreas Holm reached a long forward ball. He got the ball past goalkeeper Friis, but on the line a Silkeborg player kicked it away.
Moments later Stefan Petersen was played completely free with a through ball and was alone with Mikkel Bruhn, but the FCH goalkeeper stayed on his feet and knocked the ball away with something resembling a volley block. The match was breathless here at the end, and then followed two dramatic minutes. First SIF’s Magnus Mattsson scored in the 85th minute after a sharp pass out to the edge, and then FCH seemed dead and buried, but a minute later substitute Nicolas Mortensen pulled one back on a ball that was knocked randomly into the box, and the match was open again.
2-4 Silkeborg
and
3-4 FC Helsingør
As the match drew to a close, FC Helsingør created a couple more chances. The biggest fell to Nicolas Mortensen. Simon Jakobsen went into a header duel, but could not get all the way up and instead headed backward. The ball dropped in front of Nicolas Mortensen, who struck from the edge of the six-yard box, but the striker rushed his effort and the ball went a fair distance over the goal. Then followed desperate pressure from FCH, with goalkeeper Bruhn also coming forward at the end, but the hard-fighting Helsingør side just could not get the ball over the line, and had to sit down in despair on the grass as the hourglass ran out, and referee Anders Poulsen blew the final whistle for FC Helsingør’s first Superliga season.
FC Helsingør: Bruhn, Jørgensen, S. Henriksen, Gregor, Fisch, Matheus, P. Olsen, Köhler, Basse, Mohammad, Douglas.
Substitutes: Tontini, Mortensen, Holm
Photo: Claus Birch, clausbirch.dk
