MCH Arena, Superliga, 24/9/23
Me still 293
Football Club Midtjylland
Founded – 1999
Nickname – Ulvene (The Wolves)
Honours – Superliga – 2015, 2018 and 2020. Danish Cup 2019 and 2022. 1e Divisie – 2000
Random Fact – The club are a merger of two clubs, Herning Fremad and Ikast FS. The latter being where ex Aberdeen player Henning Boel started his career. Any excuse for a Dons link.
Brexit struck and sent me to Denmark a day early. This due to me being a non-European and needing to re-do my biometrics for visa purposes before flying offshore on Tuesday. This left the chance of steaming up to Herning for a fourth visit to FCM in the year I have been a mercenary here in this wonderful country. Time was tight but in an incredible rare occurrence My flight to Esbjerg was not delayed. That’s right, a Loganair flight was NOT delayed. This left me enough time to dump my bag at the hotel then hot tail it up to Mid-Jutland for this Superliga encounter. This being via a taxi which despite being a bit of an expense was a quality journey as Kim the driver was a brilliant example of the human race. Funny and friendly but also geared up with a good knowledge of fitba. A top geezer. He picked me at the airport then offered his services after the hotel. Good man.
I arrived at the ground with fifteen minutes to spare giving me time to stock up on beer and sausage before taking my berth behind the goal in the standing CC Contractor end where the more boisterous fans hold fort. I thought this was going to be a close game given how the sides starts to the season had panned out and that was exactly what I got. A hard fought battle which was won right at the death when FCM got penetrated the 5 at the back defence of Odense
Midtjylland had the best chance of the half but it wasn’t until the final few minutes of the first half which told the story of the match so far. This was when Aril Simsir had a goal bound effort blocked by a foot. Not much action but a decent battle none the less.
HT 0 v 0
The second half burst into life almost immediately when the home side looked like they should have been awarded a penalty for a foul in the box but it incredibly wasn’t given, but then immediately in strange circumstances they were awarded one for what I do not know. Maybe down to the howler of the previous non award to make up for it? I can only guess for handball against Nicklas Mauritson but VAR took an age to decide. But when the ref heads to the screen you know what is coming Gue-Sung Cho stepped up and the cornrowed South Korean did the needful hitting his kick up the middle while Hansen dived right. The lead lasted no time at all and it was level straight away when a very well worked multi-pass team goal was finished off by Louicius Deedson from around 10 yards out. A great goal but the keeper seemed to go down in instalments to try and keep out the Haitians effort. No matter though as game on. But after the frantic start to the half , the game reverted back into the same battling manor of the first half. Not that that was a bad thing and OB were given several yellow cards in the process. As time ticked on it seemed this was heading toward the draw. But late into the game beyond the 90 Cho had the chance to win it from 10 yards but he diverted a cross over the bar when he should really have hit the target. But he made up for his error in the 95th minute when he nodded the ball to team mate Charles who on the first touch smashed home to win the match. The top came off, the fans went radge and the three points stayed in Herning as the goal went in I straight away looked at the away end and there was this incredible drop of the heads in unison. Sheer dejection. A proper kick in the bollocks to them after what was a decent performance in a good game. Glad I headed up for this as it was good viewing. But in all honesty Danish fitba has rarely let me down in the past.
Next up, some more 10th tier fitba on the next island over, Funen.
Entrance – 110DKK (approx £12.80)
Attendance – 8205
Pie and Pint deal- 90 DKK (approx £10.50)
FITBAWBAG 