Sweden
Allsvenskan
Wednesday 26th September 2018
Kick Off 19.00 Actual 19.01
Hammarby I.F. 0 I.F. Elfsborg 1, attendance 17,896
31’ 0-1
@ Tele2 Arena
Arenaslingan 14
121 77 Johanneshov
Stockholm
240 SEK Admission + 30 SEK Booking Fee (rip off add on), Print at Home Ticket
30 SEK Programme, 32 pages.
Tonight, it was back to top division action, for third in the league table versus twelfth. The stadium is easily reached from central Stockholm, taking the Metro on line T19 south towards Hagsatra, getting off at the stop for Globen, which is less than 10 minutes walk away.
Tele2 Arena was opened in 2013 and has a capacity of 33,000. It is also home to fellow top division team Djurgårdens I.F. Having a retractable roof makes it an ideal venue for concerts, with the record crowd of 39,338 having been here to see Madonna in 2015. I am not sure if cash is taken inside the stadium here or not, as due to the close proximity of the city centre, there is no need to eat or drink here.
Hammarby were in with a real chance of becoming league champions just four matches ago, but three defeats and a draw in the subsequent games have left them looking out of it now, as they have dropped to third place, where they trail Norrköping by 4 points and leaders A.I.K. by a further 3, with just seven games remaining.
Elfsborg managed to score with one of just two efforts on goal during the entire match, whilst Hammarby were simply dreadful, despite having at least three quarters of the possession. They did have a goal disallowed for offside and also managed to somehow hit the post from an open goal just six yards out. If this is the third best team in Sweden, then it doesn’t say much for the standard of the league.
One thing that was unusual tonight was the attendance figure. It was officially given as 17,896, but on their on-line ticket page, it was showing they had sold 20,034 tickets around 2 hours before kick off. Most clubs add a load on to the figures (rather like Arsenal) so this must be one of the few that do it by actual number of fans present.
