Match report FC Fredericia
The seventeenth and final round of NordicBet Ligaen in 2022 was to be played today at Monjasa Park for FC Helsingør, where the league’s no. 12 FC Fredericia were waiting.
1. Half
And there was pace from the very first second!
4 minutes after the referee had blown the match into action, he whistled for a free kick for FC Fredericia just outside the box. A decisive strike kissed the top of the Helsingør wall and the ball was therefore deflected and sailed over the head of Sayouba Mandé.
1-0 to FC Fredericia
Helsingør was then under pressure and could not get any calm into the game. 10 minutes later, Fredericia were able to send in a hard, low corner toward the near post. There Fredericia’s Frederik Carstensen appeared and got a foot to it, so the ball again whistled in behind Mandé.
2-0 after a quarter of an hour.
This woke up FC Helsingør’s boys and they quickly gathered their heads together to refresh their agreements and wipe the slate clean.
That helped Helsingør’s play enormously and after 20 minutes both Callum McCowatt and Alexander Lyng had tried their luck with shots. Unfortunately without the necessary quality.
At the same time as the clock reached half an hour, a Fredericia player was again brought down in a promising free-kick position and Frederik Helstrup received the match’s first caution in the same sequence. However, this shot went straight into Mandé’s gloves and the score therefore remained 2-0
Fortunately, it did not last.
3 minutes later FC Helsingør combined their way through the Fredericia defence and the ball was played through to Sterling Yatéké, who put the ball in the net for a 2-1 lead.
Now FC Helsingør could smell points and the pressure on Fredericia’s goal was intensified towards the break. However, neither good free-kick chances nor corners could change the result and the equalizer in the first half therefore had to wait.
2-1 at halftime
2. Half
The second half started, unlike the first, without an explosive beginning or goals from either side. Sterling had to take a trip to the grass and Callum broke free from the defence after good actions from Oliver Klitten and sent a solid left-footed effort off. But once again the Fredericia goalkeeper stood in the way.
With half an hour to go, head coach Morten Eskesen signaled that he would make substitutions. Off went Callum, Lyng and Kasper Enghardt and on came Drost, Knudsen and Jacob Schoop.
FC Helsingør had until then held a slight edge in the chase for the equalizer, but it did little good. Fredericia were efficient and with 20 minutes remaining their striker Frederik Carstensen found too much space, scored his second goal of the match and at the same time sent Fredericia on course for victory.
FC Helsingør were now busy and had to step up if they were to make any hopes of bringing anything home to Zealand.
Unfortunately it was FC Fredericia who had the most pace, and it increasingly looked more like a goal at the other end than a reduction.
With 12 minutes remaining, the experienced Daniel Norouzi was sent onto the pitch and given the captain’s armband in the hope that this could make the difference in the closing minutes.
That was not to be, and Fredericia’s no. 18 Frederik Heiselberg sealed Helsingør’s fate with 7 minutes left of normal time.
The final score therefore ended 4-1 to FC Fredericia and our blue-and-white-striped boys therefore had to take a defeat home in their luggage from the year’s final match. Helsingør currently lies in 5. place in NordicBet Ligaen and can look forward to wintering at the top of the table together with the remaining top-6 teams.
