VALLE (VG) (Vålerenga – Mjøndalen 2-0) The guests had the knife to their throat and everything to lose, but wasted their chances when Vålerenga was deadly precise. The next opponent for Mjøndalen is gold-chasing Bodø / Glimt.
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– It is a good achievement. We wash up chances, big fact chances. So here it was possible to win, but we do that a little too often, not. We get the worst opponent, on the worst premise in the next match, so everything is absolutely damn difficult. It is not possible to put much worse than this here. It will be tough and on the verge of impossible, says Mjøndalen captain Christian Gauset to VG.
Everything was at stake for the guests from Mjøndalen when they entered Intility Stadium on Sunday night. With a loss in Oslo, and Stabæk points on Nadderud against Rosenborg, the brown-clad would move down to the OBOS League.
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And it was clear that the Mjøndalen players saw the seriousness of the situation.
– We play a good away game. Creates a lot in the first half, creates a lot and should have scored. In the second round as well. But we can not score, and then it goes as it usually goes against good teams, says Mjøndalen coach Vegard Hansen to VG.
The next opponent for the brown-clad is Bodø / Glimt who are chasing league gold. It is hard to imagine a more difficult starting point for survival in the division.
– They probably have to win to take league gold, such an exciting starting point. Difficult, but exciting, says the charismatic coach.
– Do you believe that you can survive in the Elite Series? asks VG.
– I think that if the guys had put their fine on a result, I think they would have predicted relegation, because everything indicates that we will not make it, but it is now a possibility, he answers.
Before the start of the match, Gauseth took his men aside and shouted some encouraging words, before storming out to try to save the place at the top level.
And it was of course the guests who had to get to the first round’s first and biggest chance when Benjamin Stokke was played alone with goalkeeper by Martin Rønning Ovenstad.
But as it should be, of course Mjøndalen will make it exciting until the last second, so the striker’s shot went straight at the debutant in the Vålerenga goal – Mathias Dyngeland.
– It was a pretty good match for us at times. Then it’s just hard to stand here now, because we can not score any goals. It’s a bit of the story of our season, says Lars Olden Larsen to VG.
Isaac Twum also wanted to test the shot foot when he was played by Gauseth, and fired the ball in the direction of the cross, unfortunately for him Dyngeland would show up in the debut and the VIF goalkeeper saved the shot.
At the break, Mjøndalen led 3-1 in the “shot on goal” statistics.
It was a completely different Vålerenga team that came out from the break. They stormed in attack and created great chances, but we actually had to wait until the 67th minute of play for the first goal came.
Fredrik Oldrup Jensen stepped up when Mjøndalen player Markus Nakkim headed a corner straight at him, and headed the ball into the net behind Idar Lysgård in the guests’ goal.
After a bunch of half-chances Mjøndalen had squandered, substitute Henrik Udahl put the nail in the coffin when he was played inside the field by Osame Sarahoui and increased the lead to 2-0.
– I am happy to score goals. Getting a chance to make a little nausea in front of there is nice, Udahl says to VG and thinks it was only a matter of time before the goal should come.
Fortunately for the guests, Stabæk and Brann lost points, so the battle for a place in the Elite Series for next season is still alive.
Mjøndalen moved up to the Eliteserien in 2018, and saved 13th place in the first season. Last year, there was also a battle for a place until the last second, and Vegard Hansen’s men saved the qualifying place in the last round of the series. In the qualifiers they won 3-2 over Sogndal.
See more statistics for the Elite Series on VG Live.–
