Lillestrøm - Rosenborg 4-2
By Endre Bakken, 27 October 2008, 20:55
RBK's hopes of getting the Bronze medal were shattered when Lillestrom turned 1-2 into 4-2.
"I'm very disappointed in our lack of attitude. Football is about winning the duels, and we stopped doing that," Erik Hamren explained to TV2.
Even though Brann helped out with 1-1 against Tromso, it will be hard to catch up with the Northerners and their two point lead; a Stabak hung over from celebrating their gold medals will probably be possible for Tromso to beat in the last league round.
Rosenborg have to blame themselves: For the third time in a week, a good first half was followed up by a bad second one.
RBK began well: Per Ciljan Skjelbred was out due to three yellow cards, so Roar Strand got his favorite position, right midfield, back. The veteran played like in the old days.
He took Mikael Lustig with him on an attack, and that was how the opening goal came: Marek Sapara sent the ball to Lustig, who sent a off a cross. At the nearest goalpost Strand came and rolled the ball into the net.
After that Lillestrom scored on their only proper attack in the first half: Turning the play around quickly, Olivier Occean got away from Mikael Dorsin and equalized.
Luckily, Strand was hungry for more. Two shots were blocked by Frode Kippe. Then he tried controlling a pass into the goal.
Ten minutes later the leading goal came: Strand played out to Lustig. One failed pass later, Strand got the ball back. His attempt was blocked, and he sent off a crossball instead. Didier Konan missed with his Bicycle-kick, but Steffen Iversen elegantly stopped the ball with his chest and scored.
"Roar could almost have scored a hattrick during the first 20 minutes. He was on all the time, and was an example for the rest of the team," Trond Henriksen bragged during half time.
The second half started with two major chances for Occean: First he headed over the bar, then he avoided RBK's offside trap and ended up alone with Rune Jarstein. His attempt at passing ended up past Magnus Myklebust.
Following that, Iversen sent a ball to Konan, who lobbed the ball over Otto Fredrikson. Stale Stensaas saved the attempt.
Then Myklebust scored the equalizer with a bicycle kick. Strand should have equalized immediately, but his header hit the post.
Lillestrom had the possibility of relegation looming over them, but were never nervous during the game because Aalesund and HamKam got goals against early in. This safety gave them more energy after half time, and Arild Sundgot headed in the leading goal after a cross from Stensaas.
Rosenborg never got back up and Occean scored 4-2 after outrunning Lustig.
""Didi" was close to scoring 3-1, but after that we were disappointingly bad. In the last part of the game we were back where we used to be," Hamren concluded.
Match statistics
Lillestrom
4-2
ROSENBORG
Olivier Occean 19, 89
Magnus Myklebust 71
Arild Sundgot 76
