There were extremely important points at stake when AIK took on Degerfors at Tele2 Arena. The away team’s tactics were to slow down the pace, pass the ball around to frustrate the home players and their fans. It worked for about 15 minutes. Then AIK started to get into it and took over more and more.
After 19 minutes, AIK got a great position. Erick Otieno stormed forward along the left flank and struck the ball into the penalty area. Besart Celina got free and pulled over, the ball was on its way into the goal but then Joseph Gyau appeared and blocked.
After 32 minutes came the first goal of the match. Anton Saletros hit a perfect corner from the left and Alexander Milosevic reached the top and headed in 1-0.
Milosevic was close to scoring a second goal. After 43 minutes, Abdihakin Ali broke outside the Degerfors penalty area and the ball ended up in Milosevic’s hands. He feinted his way into a good position but the shot was blocked.
– It was back and forth. We have to keep the ball more, be smarter and not beat the first best, Milosevic told Discovery+ during the break and continued:
– It is clear that it was important (the 1-0 goal) and it gave us the lead, but we have a half to go.
Degerfors started the second half best and pushed AIK back. The home players started to make individual mistakes and were pressured towards their own penalty area. But the away team was unable to create hot chances.
After 71 minutes, AIK scored 2-0. Abdihakin Ali drove the ball forward to Degerfors’ penalty area and pressed, the ball hit Sebastian Ohlsson and went into the goal.
– It was a goal, that was the most important thing. I don’t care how the ball went into the goal, it was a goal, says Ali to Discovery+.
With three points in the account, AIK stepped up over the qualifying line and onto safe ground. Seven rounds remain and AIK are two points ahead of Sirius, who are in the qualifiers.
– It was well deserved with three points, it was really what we wanted, says Ali and continues:
– We were in control the whole match and it was nice to get three points. That was the most important thing. It’s always important to win, it doesn’t matter where we are in the table, you always want three points.
Degerfors is now second to last on the same score as Sirius.
– It’s disappointing, it always is when you lose. It was a game, where I had good hopes of points, but we failed to do so. You are not satisfied with that, says Degerfors coach Andreas Holmberg to Discovery+ and continues:
– I think the game was quite even, and in the second half I think we were better in the game. In the first half, they took care of the transition game in a better way than we did, partly when they won the ball on our turnovers, and then we were not sharp enough when we won the ball and got chances in our counterattack. There they came out victorious.
– In the second half we grabbed it and were on the move, but then after a quarter we conceded a goal, which shouldn’t have been a goal. Then the uphill was pretty steep, and they killed the match. They could lie down and control in a different way. I had hopes that we could be even sharper and create even more chances.
Starting XI:
AIK: Nordfeldt – Thychosen, Milosevic, Papagiannopoulos, Otieno – Modesto, Saletros, Ali, Celina – Faraj, Pittas.
Degerfors IF: Rossbach – Bouzaiene, Granath, Bergqvist, Ohlsson, Gyau – Örqvist, Mårtensson, Gravius - Bolin, Campos.
