On Thursday evening, Djurgården changed the top battle in the Allsvenskan and league phase in the Uefa Conference League to the second round of the Swedish Cup on a rainy Järfällvallen. In the pot was a place in the Swedish Cup’s group stage next year.
Djurgården, third in the Allsvenskan table, was pitted against FC Järfälla, a club that on weekdays resides in Division 2 northern Svealand and is there in fifth place.
The club’s coaches Kim Bergstrand and Thomas Lagerlöf chose to thoroughly shake up the starting eleven ahead of Thursday’s event.
Compared to this weekend’s match against Kalmar, only the center back pair and goalkeeper Oscar Jansson remained in the starting eleven.
There was an uplifted mood at Järfällavallen before kick-off, despite stormy weather conditions. Just over 1,400 people, many of them zoo supporters, had braved the rain.
That the match would take place at all was far from certain before kick-off. The large amounts of rainfall caused a large puddle to form at one of the edges of the sports ground and risked postponing the match. However, the judge chose to approve the plan on short notice.
Djurgården dictated the conditions on the water-heavy artificial turf early on. After just over three minutes, Daniel Stensson hit an open pass to August Priske, who handed over to Tobias Gulliksen free in front of goal. A controlled finish from the Norwegian and 1-0 to the away team was a fact.
Ten minutes later, a missed free kick again landed at the feet of Gulliksen, who had time to measure a cross. The longest player on the field, August Priske, appeared completely unmarked and headed in 2-0 to the blue stripes.
Gulliksen would continue to be involved and was also behind the visitors’ third goal in the match. The Norwegian got the ball on the left wing after a quick free kick and found Peter Therkildsen, who was able to score 3-0 in an open cage when the clock hadn’t even reached 25 minutes.
Järfälla had few excursions in Djurgården’s half of the pitch and Oscar Jansson was almost completely idle during the match’s first 45. Djurgården had opportunities for further goals, but Christos Liantas in Järfälla’s goal could resist.
– We will come out as we should and just as we talked about with a lot of energy, said the away team’s Viktor Bergh to Sportbladet’s broadcast at halftime.
Already after a minute of play in the second half, Djurgården would offer Järfälla a way into the match. Team captain Nahom Egziabi was served the ball in front of goal after a sloppy Djurgårds play and reduced to the joy of the home crowd.
However, the dream of a pickup would be short-lived. Tobias Gulliksen was responsible for his fourth goal involvement when he found Priske with a low cross on the far post.
August Priske would score two more goals before the game ended. The Dane was in the right place in the box and could safely place both 5-1 and the final score 6-1. Four goals for the evening for Priske. At the same time, Gulliksen finished the match with four assists.
Djurgården did the job convincingly and a fairly tension-free match ended 6-1 to the away team, which is thus ready for the group stage in the Swedish Cup at the beginning of next year.
Startelvor:
Järfälla: Liantas – Hedivi, L. Würtz, Lönn, Norén – Saweris, Tuncer, Portilla – A. Würtz, Dahir, Egziabihar.
Djurgården: Jansson – Therkildsen, Une Larsson, Danielson, Bergh – Eriksson, Stensson – Fallenius, Gulliksen, Radetinac – Priske.
