"Little Per" was the big hero
By Thomas Myren, 14 September 2005, 18:26
The whole team played very well against Olympiakos, but Per Ciljan Skjelbred was still the one everyone talked about after the match.
The 18-year-old played very well in May and June, but had been stucked to the bench after the summer holidays. Tuesday night he finally was back in the starting line-up, playing his first ever Champions League match.
"It was great to be given the chance again after being left out from first team football. This was the dream come true," Skjelbred smiled to TV3 after the 3-1-win.
"Little Per" crowned his debut with a goal just before half time: Øyvind 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," the goalscorer says.
But the match began in a terrible way for Per and his teammates when Alejandro Lago scored an own goal after just 19 minutes.
"We did get a very bad start, and I thought "now the goals will pour in". But we managed to turn the situation around, and I felt we regained the control. At the same time we began creating chances," Skjelbred sums up.
His equalizer gave Rosenborg hope again.
"When we got 1-1, we realized we had the opportunity to win. The boys worked 100 percent during the full match, and we fought bravely," Per Ciljan Skjelbred states.
And as everyone knows, this contributed to a great 3-1 victory!