In a tight match, the sharpness was the difference as FC Helsingør lost narrowly to AaB in Aalborg on Sunday evening, in a game FCH generally had a lot to be proud of.
FC Helsingør started the match well and were on the front foot in the first ten minutes. In particular, Matheus showed good ball control and had a couple of fine actions. The midfield triangle with Basse, TK and Patrick Olsen put together many good combinations, and Helsingør had more of the ball than AaB.
Nevertheless, it was the home side that after 12 minutes came closest to taking the lead, when a corner sailed through the box without touching either friend or foe, and only luck prevented Jores Okore from getting his head to it.
After that, it seemed as if AaB got a bit better grip on the match, and they also had a couple of shots on goal, without it becoming truly dangerous. Thus, it had been played for 25 minutes before AaB had their first really dangerous attempt. Bruhn and Daniel Jørgensen both had trouble getting to a ball that danced on the edge of the area. It ended up with AaB’s Safranko, who, however, fired well over the goal.
But then FC Helsingør had been warned, and already two minutes later it went wrong. After a free kick, the ball was played forward on AaB’s right side, and a cross was played flat back into the Helsingør box. Safranko finished, and the ball hit Jannik Pohl on the leg and totally deceived Bruhn in goal.
1-0 AaB
After half an hour, it was then close to going completely wrong. AaB delivered a cross that, right on the edge of the left side of the area, hit Daniel Jørgensen on the arm. Referee Dennis Mogensen blew for a penalty. But Mikkel Bruhn made a fine save from Safranko’s relatively weak effort.
The last quarter of the first half saw the game swing back and forth, and FCH came close when Andreas Holm got on the end of a well-delivered corner, but AaB goalkeeper Rinne got there just first and got his hands on it. That meant the home side could go into the break leading 1-0, but Helsingør had certainly not been played off the pitch.
The second half started dramatically. Already after two minutes, the Helsingør players felt, to that extent, cheated out of a penalty when Jores Okore almost took a basketball dribble on the ball with his hand in the box, but the referee’s whistle remained inexplicably silent.
From the start of the second half, Helsingør were allowed to have the ball quite a bit, but they found it difficult to get pace into the counters, and the AaB men repeatedly got back into position in the lines. After an hour, the coaching staff took the consequence and sent on Adnan Mohammad.
Shortly after coming on, Adnan won a free kick on the right side, and instead of delivering the cross everyone expected, free-kick taker “Malte” Johannsen shot directly at goal. The shot deceived AaB’s goalkeeper, but unfortunately went narrowly wide of the post. Helsingør smelled blood, and less than a minute later the ball was played into the middle to TK, who tried an optimistic shot from 30 meters that dipped dangerously, but unfortunately hit the crossbar.
AaB threatened most on counters, and after 69 minutes it was centimetres away from one quickly executed counterattack producing a goal. A flat cross reached Jannik Pohl, but a well-playing captain Andreas Holm blocked the shot in the last second.
Nicolas Mortensen was also brought on in an attempt to turn the match around, but AaB stood solid in defence, and despite plenty of possession and good passing play, Helsingør had difficulty getting through the red-and-white-striped wall.
In the 83th minute, FCH took Daniel Jørgensen off, and substitute Morten Hegaard came on in a somewhat unfamiliar role as target man up front. Already in his first action, the tall Hegaard got to a cross first, but his layoff just failed to reach an onrushing Mikkel Basse.
FC Helsingør pushed hard at the end, but could not force the final sharpness, and so the match ended in a narrow defeat after a performance the Helsingør fans could absolutely be proud of, but which unfortunately did not yield any points.
FC Helsingør: Bruhn, Holm, S. Henriksen, Jørgensen, J. Henriksen, Basse, Johannsen, “TK” Köhler, Olsen, Holst, Matheus Leiria.
substitutes: Adnan Mohammad, N. Mortensen, Hegaard
