The newcomer Helsingborgs IF receives Blåvitt in their Allsvenskan home premiere, the first with an audience at Olympia after the pandemic. On Saturday, HIF’s website counted over 10,000 tickets sold for this afternoon’s match, of which around 1,800 were sold to IFK Gothenburg’s sections.
Blåvitt defeated IFK Värnamo in the premiere with 2-1 while HIF fell with the same numbers away against Hammarby.
– It will be a very fun match, I look forward to the match very much. It will be an intense match. I can say this: I expect / hope that the whole of Olympia will take the fight with the Blue and White heel on the verbal battle. So that we get an Olympia that wins the soundstage against the Blue and White heel. The blue and white heel is very strong and drives his team in a good way. There I hope that we get a feeling that it will be a very strong and clear home game for us, so that the audience takes that fight. Then it is not only enough with Södra stand – they will do a damn good job in this, but also need help from the long sides, says HIF coach Jörgen Lennartsson.
The 56-year-old coached IFK Gothenburg for 2.5 years between 2015 and 2017. His team won the Swedish Cup during the first season and finished second the same year in the Allsvenskan. However, Lennartsson plays down the fact that it will be the first time he is faced with Blåvitt in the Allsvenskan since then.
– I would like to say that is quite undramatic. I am a very good friend with a lot of people in Blåvitt, both players and leaders and people in the club who are good friends of me in different ways. I’ve had a son who played there only until a few weeks ago. It’s pretty undramatic for me. It’s the same thing when I was in Blåvitt and met Elfsborg – and got the same question then. That is not something that I feel has any significance for my own part, is my honest answer. However, it is a prestige between the clubs, says Lennartsson.
The fact that IFK Gothenburg has been sportingly heavy during the years since he left the club does not seem to arouse any sentimentality among the away fans.
– There has been so much water flowing between the bridges since then. They have probably forgotten that, says Lennartsson.
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