“Could have gone to war ten times over”

When Djurgården was back in Allsvenskan play again after the European Championship break, the Stockholm club was cheered on by more than 7,000 spectators at home at Tele2 Arena against Örebro.

It all ended with a comfortable 3-0 victory when team captain Magnus Eriksson scored his first league goal of the season. Eriksson’s well – placed left shot meant 2-0 in the middle of the second half and after that it was mostly a transport distance towards the final signal.

– It was time (to make the first goal). “Kimpa” (coach Kim Bergstrand) has pissed me off a bit because I do not hit goals enough, so it was time to do it. From the position I live in now, I feel more like a forward, says midfielder Eriksson after the victory.

Judging by the emotions afterwards, he was one of the players who enjoyed having the home crowd back again.

– You get spoiled when you have them week in and week out. This pandemic has made us a little more aware of how much it means. Of course, playing without an audience for a year and a half has an effect, so it was a magical feeling today with the supporters in place. It was so fucking fun to put it bluntly, says Eriksson and continues:

– We talked about it before, no motivation speech was needed today, it would come by itself. You go on a lot of adrenaline and we get paid very well for our job in the first half, where we play great football. It is clear the audience has an influence in it.

Thanks to the victory, Djurgården rises as the new league leader with a better goal difference than Malmö FF (which has one match more played). How much can the audience’s presence then increase Djurgården’s golden chances?

– Of course we will get a lot for free thanks to our audience, but other bigger teams will also get it. Right now I am just extremely happy that we have the audience in place and we will do everything to keep them as happy as we can, says Eriksson, who was lyrical about the support from the stands.

– I do not hate that there are 7,000 farmers in the arena today (laughs), so you can say. Of course you are drawn into it. I love playing on Tele2 in front of the Djurgård audience. I could have gone to war and replayed this match ten times. I enjoyed it so much.

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