Two teams that have slipped in the Allsvenskan recently met in Borås when the home team Elfsborg took on Malmö FF.
For Elfsborg, who before the match had nine consecutive Allsvenskan matches without a win, it started in the best way.
Niklas Hult was brought down in the penalty area and a penalty was awarded. There, Michael Baidoo was the safety himself when he put in 1-0 after eleven minutes.
However, there was no lead at the break when Isaac Kiese Thelin equalized in the final stages of the first half.
Kiese Thelin would find his way again. In the 65th minute, Anders Christiansen stole the ball from Emmanuel Boateng near Elfsborg’s penalty area and played Kiese Thelin to make it 2-1 and his second goal of the evening.
But the equalizer was to come and this time it was Michael Baidoo’s turn to score two goals when he headed in Jeppe Okkel’s pass in the 74th minute.
“Means a lot”
Five minutes later, 3–2 came through the unusual goalscorer André Rømer. With a volley shot with the outside after a corner, he scored his first goal this season.
The goal was the last of the match and thus Elfsborg took a much-awaited victory and moved up to ninth place in the table.
— It means a lot. We have fought so hard and it has not gone our way. But we keep going and finally the victory comes today, says Rømer to Discovery+.
Malmö is firmly in fifth place, eleven points behind league leader Häcken, and is at great risk of missing out on European places with nine rounds left to play. In the last five rounds, Malmö has one win, one draw and three losses.
Clear AIK victory
Football was also played at the Friends arena between AIK and visiting Gif Sundsvall. There it was a first half that had high-quality goal chances in both directions.
It was cleared on the goal line and there were great saves – but right at the end of the first half, the ball dropped in front of AIK’s Nicolas Stefanelli, who sent 1-0 into the net from close range.
— It’s a good first half, but we should really lead this match, stated Gif Sundsvall’s team captain Pontus Engblom in Discovery +.
AIK extended the lead to 2–0 at the beginning of the second half. Center back Sotirios Papagiannopoulos pushed the ball up from his own half and passed to Stefanelli who played the ball to Nabil Bahoui who easily poked the ball into the goal from close range.
AIK eventually won 4–0 after Nicolas Stefanelli scored his second goal of the night and Sebastian Larsson settled the final score from the penalty spot.