December 5, 2024
These diaries made a few incursions into Norway’s Eliteserien in 2021 and 2022 and sort of adopted Haugesund as their favourite club, mainly because their nickname was the Seagulls, the same as Brighton and Hove Albion !
Haugesund finished in 10th position in 2022 and 12th in 2023. However, 2024 was not so prosperous as they ended the regular season in 14th place, and so faced a two-legged relegation play-off to retain their place in the top level in Norwegian football.
Haugesund
Haugesund has a population of just over 37,000, which according to Wikipedia makes it the 37th largest city in Norway. It is located on the North Sea coast, to the north of Stavanger. Its football side have been in the Eliteserien since 2010, with a best placed finish of third in 2013.
Haugesund play at the 8,754 capacity Haugesund Stadion, which is currently one of only 4 in the Eliteserien with a grass pitch.
In 2022, these diaries saw them beat Viking 4-2 at home but lose 0-1 at FK Jerv.
Haugesund This Season
The battle to avoid the one relegation play-off place was a closely fought affair, and with two games left to play just one point separated four sides.
Haugesund occupied the relegation play-off place on goal difference despite a 2-0 home win over rivals Tromso the week before and were one point adrift of Sandefjord and Kristiansund. Lillestrom and Odds BK had been cast adrift and had already been assured of the two automatic relegation places a few weeks before the end of the season.
However round 29 was a disaster for Haugesund as they lost 1-5 at Viking, Tromso beat Stromsgodset 2-0, Sandefjord won 3-0 at Lillestrom, and Kristiansund won 2-1 at KFUM Oslo.
Although Haugesund won their final league match 2-1 against already relegated Odds BK it wasn’t enough to overtake Tromso, who survived on goal difference despite a 1-2 reverse at Sarpsborg 08.
At the top end of the table, FK Bodo/Glimt were champions, finishing three points clear of SK Brann, with Viking a further two points behind. The Norwegian Cup Final is between Molde and Fredrikstad this weekend in Oslo, with the winners taking the final slot in Europe.
Haugesund Squad
From the players that featured in these diaries in 2022, only four are still with the club, namely keeper Egil Selvik ( 4 caps ), Danish centre-back Anders Baertelson, Danish midfielder Julius Eskesen, and ex-Hull City and Peterborough United forward Martin Samuelson.
The most notable departure was Greek midfielder Christos Zaferis who is now playing for Slavia Prague. Somalian forward Bilal Njie had moved to Odd BK, Senegalese striker Alioune Ndour was now playing in Belgium for Zulte-Waregem, and defender Peter Therkildsen is with Swedish side Djurgardens.
Defender Sorin Reese was now with Danish side Fremad Amager, Thore Pederson was now with Brann, as was midfielder Mads Sande. Midfielder Kevin Kygard was now playing for Lillestrom, after a short spell with Portuguese side Casa Pia. Nikolas Walstad was now with Stabaek and Alexander Sonderlund had dropped down two divisions to join Vard.
The mainstays of the current side were Norwegian centre-back Ulrik Fredriksen, Tunisian winger/forward Sebastien Tounekti ( 1 cap ), Capo Verde midfielder Bruno Leite ( 6 caps ), Swedish left-sided defender Oscar Krusnell and Danish midfielder Mathias Sauer, who is on loan from AGF.
Haugesund’s top scorer with 5 goals was Malian forward Sory Diarra ( 1 cap ), who has played in Romania for Petrolul Ploiesti. Defensive midfielder Anton Logi Ludviksson has won one cap for Iceland, midfielder Parfait Bizoza has been called up by Burundi but remains uncapped, unlike defender Claus Niyukuro who has one cap for Burundi.
Haugesund’s average attendance this season was 4,963, the 9th best in the Eliteserien.
Moss
Moss is a coastal town, situated 55 kilometres south of the capital Oslo, and with a population of just over 30,000
It’s football side won the Norwegian title in 1986 and played Real Madrid on the first round of the 1988/89 European Cup. They also won the Norwegian Cup in 1983, which led to them playing Bayern Munich in the 1985/86 European Cup Winners Cup. The last time Moss were in the top level in Norway was in 2002, and they even played in the 4th tier for one season in 2017.
Moss have been in the second tier 1.Division, known as the OBOS-ligaen for sponsorship reasons, for the past two seasons. They finished third this year to enter the promotion playoffs, in which they beat Kongsvinger 3-2 with the help of two own goals in front of a home crowd of 3,079. Their average attendance during the league season was 1,861.
Home is the Mellos stadium, which has a grass pitch and a capacity of 3,200, but has an athletics track around the pitch. Moss are also known as Kaellane, which means The Lads.
Keeper Mathias Erikson played every minute of the 30-game league season whilst forwards Thomas Jakobsen and Sebastian Pederson appeared in all 30 matches. Pederson was the top scorer with 11 goals, followed by Jakobsen with 10. Attacking midfielder Bo Hegland was next with 8 goals.
Swedish attacking midfielder Noah Alexandersson had played for IFK Gothenburg whilst defender Saadiq Elmi has 4 caps for Somalia.
The coach of Moss was ex-Everton, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic keeper Thomas Myhre, who made 56 appearances for Norway.
Matchday Information
The journey by road from Haugesund to Moss is 470 kilometres, which would normally take around 8 hours. Moss were offering free buses for supporters to go to the second leg !
The weather at the 18.30 local time ( 17.30 UK time ) was sleet with a stiff breeze and temperatures of 2 degrees. Snow was visible on the running track around the ground.
Tickets for the game ranged between 200-220 NOK ( £14 to £16 ) for adults, 150-165 NOK ( £10.50 to £11.75 ) for over 67s, and 100-110 NOK ( £7 to £8 ) for under 16s.
The match was streamed live on Bet365.com, who made Moss 5/4 favourites, with Haugesund at 21/10 and the draw at 11/5.
Moss made one change to the side that started against Kongsvinger, with Bierton Isufi replacing Hakon Vold Krohg in midfield. Haugesund made four changes, with keeper Selvik, full back Vegard Solheim, Swedish left back Oscar Krusnell and Tounekti all returning to the side.
Moss were wearing yellow shirts with black sleeves, with black shorts and socks. Haugesund were in their usual all white kit.
Match Report
Haugesund started quickly and in the first minute Sauer’s pass invited Solheim to run deep inside the Moss area to play the ball across the 6-yard line but Tounekti’s effort from beyond the far post was blocked by Cassidy. Krusnell forced a corner after retrieving the loose ball, but the set-piece was cleared.
The visitors won their second corner in the fourth minute but again Moss were able to clear their lines and launched a counterattack, but Elmi lacked support and had to turn and play the ball back towards the half-way line.
A minute later Sauer’s delightful ball with the outside of left foot put Tounekti in space on the left, and the Tunisian cut back inside, but his 20-yard effort was straight at Eriksen, who held comfortably.
The high tempo beginning was end-to-end stuff as Isufi’s defence splitting ball released Pederson, whose first time left footed shot from 14 yards was saved by Selvik.
With 10 minutes played Elmi crossed from the left but Jakobson’s header went well wide of the Haugesund goal. Elmi continued to figure in the dangerous moments for Moss with a surging run down the left wing, but although his attempted pass was cut-out the left-back regained possession and sent a bullet cross into the penalty area but it was too high for the Moss attackers.
The first yellow card of the game was shown in the 19th minute when Tounetki needlessly pulled back Isufi midway inside the Moss half.
In the 23rd minute Sauer ran towards the byline inside the Moss area, but his low cross was pushed away by Eriksen and the loose ball was hoofed to safety.
Three minutes later, the Seagulls created another good chance. A long kick from keeper Selvik found Sauer on the right-hand touchline and the midfielder cut inside to shoot left footed from 20 yards. Eriksen made the save, diving to his left to push the ball away and Bizoza was the quickest to react, playing the ball across the 6-yard line towards Liseth, but offside was given against Liseth.
Haugesund forced another corner but the header from Fredriksen was high and wide.
With 30 minutes on the clock Hapnes showed good skill to make space for himself and then played a cute chip over the Haugesund backline for Pederson to run onto. Keeper Selvik was quickly off his line as both players challenged for the ball. Pederson went to the floor in the collison, the ball went through Selvik and was rolling towards the empty net, but Fredrikson got back to put it out of play as Jakobsen came hopefully sliding in.
Back at the other end Tounekti was fouled inches outside the Moss area, but Krusnell wasteful free kick went harmlessly high and wide.
A couple of odd pieces of officiating followed next. Pederson slid in to perfectly win the ball only for Bizoza to then fall over him. The referee awarded a free-kick to Haugesund ! This was evened up a minute later when Sauer was declared offside from a throw-in………
Moss produced the game’s most flowing move so far, involving Alexandersson, Jakobsen and Hegland before Jakobsen strayed offside.
Four minutes from half-time a cross from Elmi was headed away by Fredriksen but only as far Alexandersson, who shot first time from just outside the area but could only direct his attempt straight to Selvik, who made a regulation catch.
The game remained scoreless at the interval, with Haugesund having had a slight edge in possession with 54%.
The Bet365 stream ceased just before the start of the second
half never to return. The YouTube highlights of the game suggest that not too
much was missed !
For the visitors Solheim sent a left footed shot from 25 yards at the Moss keeper, and in the 51st minute Hegland sent a 20-yard shot bouncing narrowly wide for Moss.
Cassidy picked up Moss’ first yellow card for pulling back Tounekti before the visitors had their best chance of the match to-date in the 72nd minute. Substitute Nyhammer ran onto a pass from Tounekti to cross from the left to beyond the back post where Innvaer volleyed left footed over the bar when he should have done a lot better.
Haugesund had an even better chance a minute later when Krusnell’s curling cross found Samuelson unmarked 8 yards out, but his header floated over the keeper and onto the crossbar. Eriksen pushed away the rebound before Innvaer could prod home.
The final chance came the way of the home side, when with 4 minutes remaining Aksel Potur cut in from the right to shoot from just outside the Haugesund area, but Selvik pushed the effort over the bar.
There was still time for Krusnell to be shown a yellow card for illegally stopping Moss’ Angolan forward Mankoka Afonso.
However, it remained 0-0 so it is everything to play for in the second leg on Sunday.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa2hbyUsHi4
Moss FK : Eriksen - Cassidy, Harrison, Kukleci, Elmi, – Jakobsen, Isufi, Hapnes, Krohg, Alexandersson ( Potur ) – Pederson ( Afonso ), Hegland ( Krohg )
FK Haugesund : Selvik – Solheim, Baertelsen, Fredriksen, Krusnell – Sauer ( Innvaer ), Ludviksson ( Nyhammer ), Bizoza, Kondradsen. –Tounekti ( Diarra ), Liseth ( Samuelsen )
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