In the last round of Damallsvenskan games before the break, the table kept a familar complexion, wins for Linköping and Rosengård away to Eskilstuna and Piteå respectively keeping them first and second, win LB07 back into fourth after a rout in Göteborg. Elsewhere Hammarby climbed out of the bottom two with a commanding win over Vittsjö and KIF found themselves up to tenth overnight with a win in at the Stockholm Stadion. In the last game of the month there was late drama when Kristianstad grabbed a late winner away to Kvarnsveden to pull away from their opposition in the middle of the table. 

Djurgården 1-2 KIF Örebro 

Coming into this game both teams were more than familiar with the Damallsvenskan relegation zone this year and still yet to show their best, DIF had stabilised their ship in a way that KIF hadn’t, the Stockholm team happily mid-table after a weak start to the year.

With improving performances but still lacking enough to see them find safety, Örebro knew that a win would take them out of the bottom two, if not just overnight and when Fanny Andersson slammed the ball into the roof of the net from two yards out after Lisa Dahlkvist had seen her header bounce off of the post things looked good for KIF.

One of the more stable goalkeepers this season, stats aside, Carola Söberg did little to cover herself in glory when Mia Jalkerud slipped Tempest-Marie Norlin though ten minutes after the break, the ‘keeper letting Norlin’s weak effort slip from her grasp before the striker finished into the waiting net. With an improved second-half, it was the hosts who looked more likely of finding a winner, backed up by Guðbjörg Gunnarsdóttir doing everything in her power to keep the traveling team out. However, it was the visitors who grabbed the late winner, a livewire throughout, Hanna Terry popped up five minutes before time to give DIF just their second win of the year. In keeping with their odd quirk of mostly scoring pearlers from range, Terry found space 25-yards out to rip a shot towards goal, the ball arcing beautifully through the air to drop just inside of the bar, flush to the far post.

Eskilstuna United 0-2 Linköping

After starting the season out so strongly, Eskilstuna had begun to slide the wrong way, without a win in their last three and without any player in blue scoring over those matches the hosts desperately needed a win to finish the first-half of the season on a positive note. Conversely their opponents have been going from strength to strength, with just one loss all year and improving performances, Linköping knew they’d be going into the Summer break top no matter the outcome in Eskilstuna but with Rosengård hot on their heels they weren’t looking to give anything up.

With a firm footing in the game from the off, the visitors came close early before a partial clearance saw Jonna Andersson able send the ball to the top of the box where Tove Almqvist volleyed the ball over Emelie Lundberg and into the back of the net, clipping the bar on the way down. When Lina Hurtig made it two little more than ten minutes later the task already seemed for great for the hosts who looked dangerous at set pieces but continued to struggle for their rhythm. Still unable to find a goal, the closest they came was Ingrid Schjelderup’s effort that pinged off of the bar, United stay in third but continue to drift from the top two.

Piteå 0-2 Rosengård

Sanne Troelsgaard’s third minute goal set the pace in the north when the Danish international got on the end of Ella Masar’s lofted ball before slotting it past Hilda Carlén. Masar was involved again for FCR’s second, the American able to rise above the two defenders around her to nod Lieke Martens’ neat cross past Carlén and leave the hosts looking considerably off the pace. The closest either could get after Masar’s thirty-third minute strike was Martens cracking the bar from the top of the box and Masar fluffing her follow-up with the defence torn apart, just before the break. 

Kopparbergs/Göteborg 2-5 Limhamn Bunkeflo

In what was to be the first of many in a big win for the visitors, Anna Björk Kristjánsdóttir opened the scoring three minutes in when she headed Sofia Wännerdahl’s lofted free-kick into the far corner, just beyond the reach of Anna Larsson. Michaela Johnsson doubled the advantage half an hour later when she had time and space to take a touch in the box and fire Anna Welin’s diagonal ball across the box and into the same corner Wännerdahl had favoured.  Keeping things respectable in the first-half, the hosts pulled a goal back through Pauline Hammarlund just before the break, the Swedish international with her seventh of the year, a firm header to beat Josephine Frigge.

Slack defending was again to blame from Göteborg as LB claimed their third goal, Kristjánsdóttir’s header back across goal just right for Malin Winberg to nod the ball into the hungry goal. Winberg grabbed her second of the game ten minutes later, pouncing on a particularly bad spot of goalkeeping when Larsson failed to claim or parry what looked like a harmless free kick, the defender quick to turn the ball home.

Things fast went from bad to worse for KG when Welin’s clinical spot kick made it five for the visitors, marking the fourth time Göteborg have conceded five in one game in the league this year. Elin Rubensson reduced the deficit back to three moments later, able to control the ball in the box before sneaking it past Frigge, but at 2-5 there were no celebrations from the captain and little chance of any late comeback.

The win LB07’s fifth of the year that sees them sitting in fourth over the break, KG now dead last without a win in their last eight. 

Hammarby 2-0 Vittsjö

The only match scoreless at half-time this week, Hammarby finally found a way through the steely visiting defence seven minutes after the restart through Olga Ekblom when the captain flicked Julia Zigiotti’s attempted bicycle kick home from two yards out. A goal to the good and with a man advantage after Johanna Andersson had been dismissed for a second yellow it was only a matter of time until the hosts extended their lead, Zigiotti sharp to run in behind at a Filippa Angeldal free kick and nod over Shannon Lynn. Still asking questions of the Scottish ‘keeper until the whistle, Hammarby will be pleased of the win that sees them out of the bottom two but will be left thinking they could have had more. 

Kvarnsveden 1-2 Kristianstad

The visitors hit the ground running at the Ljungbergsplanen when Ogonna Chukwudi raced onto a ball over the top, carrying it into the box before slipping it around Jenny Wahlén to give KDFF the lead less than fifteen minutes in. Continuing to threaten throughout the first-half, Chukwudi’s attempted chip slipped just wide before Alice Nilsson saw her left effort just pushed wide.

The game slowed down in the second-half, the hosts seeing more half-chances than anything more solid and their opposition becoming wasteful as the minutes ticked by, their lone goal looking like enough with the summer break calling. But with little more than five minutes left on the clock the hosts were given a golden opportunity to draw level from the spot after Elin Danielsson was felled in the box, Elizabeth Addo able to send Brett Maron the wrong way and restore parity with a well-placed penalty.  But the drama wasn’t over in Borlänge and with the last action of stoppage time Amanda Edgren got on the end of Rebecka Holm’s deep free kick to nod the ball behind Wahlén and snatch all three points. 

 

Damallsvenskan table as it stands (Credit: SvFF)
Damallsvenskan table as it stands (Credit: SvFF)
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About the author
Sophie Lawson
Neutral football fan travelling around Europe, covering matches and bothering footballers for interviews