After five defeats in a row in the league, Rosenborg shocked Football-Europe with a great win in Athen - the first away win in six years in the Champions League!


OWN GOAL OF THE CENTURY: Four Olympiakos players were involded in the goal who gave RBK a 2-1 lead. Øyvind Storflor celebrates.

"Little Per" was the big hero

Rosenborg surprised former coach Trond Sollied by picking technical and fast players like Thorstein Helstad, Per Ciljan Skjelbred and Fredrik Winsnes instead of tall fellows like Frode Johnsen and Vidar Riseth. Olympiakos therefore had trouble getting a good grip on the match.

"Today we succeed very well with our tactics, we are very calm with the ball in our feet, are waiting for the right chances and is defending well," coach Per-Mathias Høgmo told TV3 after the match.

Olympiakos nevertheless took the lead when Rosenborg defender Alejandro Lago headed into his own net.

But Rosenborg fought their way back into the game, and within few miniutes Roar Strand, Thorstein Helstad and Øyvind Storflor were all played through in front of goal, without being able to score.

But just before just before half time the equalizer came: Storflor "carved" in from the left flank, and delivered the ball to Skjelbred in just the right moment: The young lad was cold as ice alone with Antonios Nikopolidis, and chipped the ball over the Greek national team goalkeeper and into the net.

"Quite frankly am I terrible in front of goal, but I was lucky with my first touch. The 'keeper was standing pretty low, so I thought I should try to lob above him. This I managed fortunately," Skjelbred smiled after his first ever match in the Champions League - what a debut!

In the 48th minute Rosenborg took the lead after yet another own goal. This one was really bizarre: Jan Gunnar Solli's crosser was blocked by Grigorios Georgatos, and team mate Georgios Anatolakis bent down to let his keeper grab the ball. But the ball bounced over Nikopolidis, who had to make a great save preventing the ball slipping into the net. Just then defender Dimitrios Mavrogenidis came running, dashing the ball over the line! :-)

The rest of the half was dominated by Olympiakos, but the Greeks had trouble producing decent goal attempts. Quite a few shots were yet fired, but their were all saved by Espen Johnsen. The Rosenborg goalkeeper had some fantastic saves.

"I had a good day, and then you are able to do this little extra. I am very pleased with my own contribution today," Johnsen says.

He did by the way have good help from Bjørn Tore Kvarme, who was the king of the central defence, cleaning up time after time.

Four minutes into injury time the 3-1 goal came: Storflor was played free by substitute Daniel Braaten, and did no mistake alone with Nikopolidis.

Rosenborg's first away victory since the 3-0 game in Dortmund in 1999 and the first win at all since 2-0 agsinst Celtic in 2001 was a fact!

"We proved our strength when coming back after 0-1 down. It was great to see that we managed to go through the whole match, and there were many fine individual performances to enjoy," Høgmo said.

Match details

Olympiakos	1-3	ROSENBORG
Own goal (A. Lago) 19		Per Ciljan Skjelbred 42 Own goal (Mavrogenidis) 48 Øyvind Storflor 90

Tuesday 13 September 2005 20:45
Champions League, Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Athen
Attendance: 31,692

Rosenborg [4-3-3]
Espen Johnsen - Roar Strand, Bjørn Tore Kvarme, Alejandro Lago, Mikael Dorsin - Per Ciljan Skjelbred (Vidar Riseth 85), Ørjan Berg, Fredrik Winsnes (Daniel Braaten 66) - Jan Gunnar Solli, Thorstein Helstad (Frode Johnsen 80), Øyvind Storflor

Yellow cards RBK: Espen Johnsen