If they didn’t know it yesterday, at least they know it now Markus Wulcan

If they didn’t know it yesterday, at least they know it now Markus Wulcan
If they didn’t know it yesterday, at least they know it now Markus Wulcan

Before the league game, as the new format is called, Elfsborg was the Europa League’s worst ranked team.

Photo: Jörgen Jarnberger/Bildbyrån

Markus Wulcan

You almost have to pinch your arm. The press room at Borås Arena after the final whistle was a little overcrowded with grumpy Italians who were only going to come here and bring home three points for the eternal city. Perhaps Sweden’s biggest Roma supporter Marcus Birro was also there, grumbled a bit about “arrogant attitude, that they never learn” but still didn’t seem too depressed by the shoes but was probably mainly impressed by the home team.

Elfsborg had tried to charm the murmurs from abroad with a better Italian buffet of the more expensive kind, but the satiety and well-being were destroyed by 90 minutes of football. Mugs of beer were visible, at least temporarily, in the press stand and my colleague and friend Hector Junelind – a worldly gentleman with a fair amount of experience – noted back that an Italian journalist below us “was smoking something that wasn’t an ordinary cigarette”.

Normally, the city of Borås sleeps at 9:00 p.m. on a Thursday, Stefan Andreasson can probably even lie down and snore at that time if he’s in that mood, but now international football and an equally international kick-off time were on the schedule and then the city had to stay awake.

Borås Arena, sold out for a long time, showed itself from its absolute best side and carried its team forward from the first to the last minute. Roma, who have had a very turbulent time behind them with the recent sacking of coach and legend Daniele De Rossi, did not seem to take the match very seriously.

Among other things, the big star Paulo Dybala felt the night before on the artificial grass “for three seconds” according to GP before he turned back into the players’ corridor. The Argentinian was also not there from the start and on the bench also sat fine players such as Dovbyk, El Shaarawy and team captain Pellegrini.

Roma’s B team is certainly not a bad bunch, but it is not just cleaning up Oscar Hiljemark’s snorting team building on an artificial surface in Borås one evening in October. If they didn’t know it yesterday, at least they know it now.

Elfsborg played smart, cynical, disciplined and attacked directly and quickly. Arber Zeneli did a lot of good things in the first half and tore up deep wounds in Roma’s defence, Michael Baidoo surely put away a VAR penalty just before the break and the lead after the first half was anything but unfair.

Roma made adjustments, tried to increase the passing tempo, had a good amount of possession, and in the 65th minute replaced Dovbyk, El Shaarawy and Pellegrini on one board. It had an effect, but still not.

Isak Pettersson took everything, was helped by the crossbar and not least the best player on the field, centre-back Gustav Henriksson. Elfsborg kept their cool the distance out, could very well have poked in a few more balls, but 1-0 at home against Roma will probably do.

Before the league game, as the new format is called, Elfsborg was the Europa League’s worst-ranked team, but now one or another out there in the big world has probably caught the eye of the club from Borås.

– How should I say this so that I don’t sound arrogant – but we are not here just to participate, said Oscar Hiljemark at the press conference after the win.

There was indeed a victory against Lazio in 2009, but it was insignificant, so nothing in Elfsborg’s history in a European context in modern times beats October 3, 2024. And it doesn’t seem that the yellow and black will settle for a victory against a Serie A club but intend to continue felling giants.

And with Oscar Hiljemark at the helm, the unthinkable feels possible. Undoubtedly a future great coach in a reputable league what it suffers.

24 out of 36 teams advance, it will probably require somewhere around six-seven-eight points to do it. After two rounds, Elfsborg is on three points and in the future Galatasaray (b), Braga (h), Bilbao (b), Qarabag (h), (h) and Tottenham (b) await. In Turkey, Spain and England you learn to score zero, but the chance really exists in the home games.

*****

Qarabag–Malmö FF 1–2.

LASK Linz–Djurgården 2–2

IF Elfsborg–Roma 1–0.

A fantastic evening for Swedish football – and what a hyper-interesting autumn we have ahead of us.

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