When the elves were presented before the start of the match, it was among other things clear that the new acquisition Omar Faraj will start again in Degerfors IF, which is in crisis due to being last in the Allsvenskan table. Visiting Kalmar FF, for its part, starts with Malmö FF loan Sebastian Nanasi.
Otherwise, neither Joseph-Claude Gyau nor Nikola Djurdjic are in Degerfors’ squad. The former is suspended after a red card most recently against Mjällby and the latter Djurdjic has not been in Degerfors’ team since an attention-grabbing pub visit before a match.
When Fotbollskanalen reached Degerfors sporting director Patrik Werner earlier this week, he announced that Djurdjic was in Bosnia due to a medical visit.
– I can’t comment on that, says chairman Fredrik Rakar when Football Channel asks on Saturday why the striker is not in the match squad for the meeting with Kalmar.
Without Djurdjic in the squad, however, it was Degerfors who started best in terms of goals. After a counterattack, midfielder Rasmus Örqvist was able to give the home team a dream start by sending in 1-0 after just a few minutes.
Degerfors came close to extending the lead with just over half an hour played, through Faraj, but Ricardo Friedrich offered a class save that stopped the new signing to open the goal account.
Shortly afterwards, Oliver Berg created a great chance when he put the ball in front of the goal to Simon Skrabb, who did not reach the ball, but instead it ran over the short line. But before the break there was an equaliser.
Nanasi wrestled the ball loose in the penalty area and went for what looked to be a finish, but the ball instead ended up with Berg, who went straight to the finish in the middle of the goal, and Alfie Whiteman failed to stop the effort, making it 1-1.
After the break, Degerfors regained the lead. It was then that Dijan Vukojevic, who after scoring his first Allsvenskan goal last time, now found the back of the net again. Örqvist drove the ball up on the edge, sent it over to the other edge where Vukojevic was standing right and was able to slam into the goal on the first touch to make it 2-1.
Startelvor:
Degerfors IF: Whiteman – Granath, Ohlsson, Lagerbielke – Lindell, Carlén, Salmon, Bouzaiene – Örqvist – Faraj, Vukojevic.
Kalmar FF: Ricardo – Lindahl, Saetra, Sjöstedt, Olafsson – Romario, Gustafsson – Skrabb, Shamoun, Nanasi – Berg.
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