VALLE (VG) (Brann – Jerv 4-4 eeo, 11-12 after penalties) It is unbelievable and was impossible to see, but in the fog at Intility Arena, little Jerv secured a sensational promotion to the Elite Series.
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– It is for me the biggest sensation in the 2000s, says Discovery + expert Joacim Jonsson after the match.
Branns Bård Finne, who missed a penalty kick in the first half, sums it up like this:
Watch the Elite Series and the OBOS League live on Discovery +
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– Completely crushed. We have fought just enough to get that qualifying spot. Losing such a fight hurts like hell. Especially the way it happens. It’s a bit difficult to analyze, but it feels terrible that we are not the team that remains as winners, says Bård Finne to Discovery +.
Jerv’s great hero was Øystein Øvretveit. The goalkeeper saved two penalties in regular time and saved the penalties of Vajebah Sakor and Robert Taylor in the penalty shootout. When Shuaibu Ibrahim then put in the decisive penalty, it was clear: Jerv are ready to play in the Elite Series for the first time in the club’s history, and the first club from the former Aust-Agder to play at the top level since the top division was merged into one division in 1963
1 of 12Photo: MARIUS SIMENSEN / BILDBYRÅN NORWAY
– This was fun then. This was damn fun, says Øvretveit to Discovery +.
– After the season we’ve had this year, it’s damn well deserved. What a way to crown this, says the goalkeeper.
While Jerv celebrated with the fans on one side of the field, Brann fans sang Nystemten in front of the players after the match. Also in 2014, Brann relegated after qualifying. Then it was precisely Øvretveit who was in goal for Brann in the qualifier matches against Mjøndalen.
– It’s spin wild. We lead 3–1, and then it becomes 3–3. Then we lead 4-3, but then we manage to win on a penalty kick. It is completely raw, says John Olav Norheim, the only one of the Jerv players who missed the penalty shootout.
Arne Sandstø from Bergen is the coach for Jerv.
– We have pig luck for 90 minutes, but then we get some momentum too. Then what happens happens. It is completely unique, says Sandstø to Discovery +.
–After 1-1, a dozen missed Brann chances, almost as many Øystein Øvretveit saves in regular time, including two on Branns both penalty kicks, the qualifying final in the Elite Series needed extra innings and penalty kick competition to be decided.
And where we thought we had seen the most dramatic qualifying finals in Norwegian football before, this surpassed what we thought was reality.
Just two minutes into the first extra inning, Brann’s stopper substitute Runar Hove Jerv’s attacking joker Shuaibu Ibrahim pulled on the jersey. Svein Oddvar Moen picked up the red card, Hove was finished, and Brann’s life in the Eliteserien seemed to be the same.
For Diego Campos, neither Bård Finne nor Mathias Rasmussen managed in ordinary time: Scoring on penalties. With good help on the backroom ball from goalkeeper Øystein Øvretveit, he also ran in 3-1, but Brann rose from football’s death realm in record time with the help of Eirik Horneland’s substitutes:
First Kasper Skaanes headed in a reduction on Monga Simba’s post, then Vajebah Sakor knocked in the equalizer to 3-3 – and the teams prepared to breathe again. They never made it. Wolverine rushed in attack and Shuaibu Ibrahim had suddenly put in the fourth behind Lennart Grill – and Brann pressed the panic button for the ninth time this season.
It worked. Army commander Sivert Helte Nilsen did what he is good at on the football field – he argued in the 4-4 equalizer with seconds left and got to stretch the Norwegian football season even a little closer to Christmas when he fixed the penalty shootout.
Sakor (Øvretveit rescue) and John Olav Norheim (above) missed each other, and on the ninth penalty kick the decision came. Robert Taylor missed – as he has done in the Elite Series this year – and Jervs Ibrahim knocked in his mercilessly. Fire goalkeeper Lennart Grill saved none of the nine in the penalty shootout.
1 of 3Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN / VG
Over two hours earlier, the hyperdrama had started with the Kollen fog having changed districts, the ball having to change color and the match changing character:
Brann went from steering to hunting when Jerv sensationally took the lead on what must have been on the southerners’ other successful posts in Branns 16-meter after 29 minutes.
Jesus Campos had a couple of good opportunities to reply, but the home team’s keeper Ole Martin Kolskogen just wouldn’t surrender. The fire defenders hesitated, Torje Wichne chopped. With a stupheading, Jerv was sensational in the lead.
The rest of the first half was like an echo of Brann’s 2021 season: They looked comfortable with the ball, they won it in favorable positions in the opposing half, they played to piles of corners, they created the chances – but the endings were done with twine.
Mathias Rasmussen shot over or into the opponent’s leg, Aune Heggebø hit Øystein Øvretveit or the post, Bård Finne did not even manage to outsmart the former Brann goalkeeper from the penalty spot after Jerv stopper Erik Tobias Sandberg was blown off to stop a shot with his hand.
The second half started with Øvretveit having to capitulate. He had to give back with his foot when teammate Sandberg put a ball towards his own goal, and Heggebø swept in the equalizer in front of Brann fans.
Øvretveit – Brann goalkeeper last time the club was relegated from the Eliteserien – quickly got to grips. When Brann got a new penalty just five minutes 1-1, the narrow-cut and bearded Sotra streak was frighteningly good again: Mathias Rasmussen took over the 11-meter responsibility, tried the opposite corner of Finne, but Øvretveit was down and held his second penalty in the match.
–Brann refused to give up after the second penalty miss and continued to run the match. In the second half, the Jerv players appeared exhausted, but Øvretveit’s long arms were well used both on the line and in the field – and the endings mostly rushed outside.
Jerv had two dead balls in overtime that lifted the pulse of the Brann supporters, but when Diego Campos’ free kick crawler went outside as the last before the final signal, the qualifying final turned into the hesitant extra innings.
In the first, a Fire was outnumbered and did not manage to create as much as before in the match after Campos’ penalty scoring. Robert Taylor was closest in the first extra inning, when Brann, after a good combination, rolled past the entire Jerv defense and got the “right man” at the end in the ball-safe fin.
But the shot went straight into the chest at Øvretveit.
See more statistics for the Elite Series on VG Live.–
