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| Thursday, 23 August 2012 09:01 |
So who are AC Horsens?In-depth look at Sporting’s Europa League opponents Even the always well informed Portuguese football analysts were at a loss to give anything but the most rudimentary information about Sporting’s Europa League adversaries when the draw was made two weeks ago. Danish football journalist Troels Bager Thøgersen enlightens us with a detailed lowdown on AC Horsens.
The clubAC Horsens is a positive story in Danish football. Formed as a merger between smaller clubs and the ‘big’ Horsens team playing in the second best league in Denmark ten years ago, the club has in many ways been anonymous in Denmark until a few years ago.
For many years the team was coached by Kent Nielsen, who won the Euro with Denmark in 1992 and had a good career as a central defender with Brondby, Aston Villa and Aarhus. Nielsen favoured a 4-4-2 with a diamond formation on the midfield, and his team got a reputation for playing very defensively after being promoted to the Danish Super League in 2005. Nielsen left to coach Brondby in 2009 (which went very badly for Nielsen), and Horsens were relegated.
They came straight back up in 2010 with Johnny Mölby - the younger brother of Liverpool-legend Jan Mölby and yet another Euro 1992-winner with Denmark - as the head coach, and since then they have developed their style of play.
Horsens have an almost brand new stadium, mostly paid for by the municipal authority, but they are still considered one of the smaller clubs in Denmark, behind teams from bigger towns like FC Copenhagen, Brondby, Odense Boldklub, FC Midtjylland, Aarhus GF and Aalborg Boldklub.
Style of playUnder Mölby, AC Horsens have begun to be better in possession. They came fourth last season and were very close to finishing third instead of FC Midtjylland. The key to this success has to a large degree been Mölby’s consistent work with improving Horsens’ play with the ball without compromising a strong defence.
Against Sporting though, I am quite sure that Horsens will adopt a much more cautious approach and stay deep in defence, while the midfield will be vigilant in putting pressure on the ball and helping out the back four. I think they will play with Ken Fagerberg up front, a strong Swedish player, whom I actually think Sporting wanted to buy back in January 2008 along with Udinese, until FC Midtjylland came in and paid around 1,5 million euros to his Swedish club.
Horsens will probably use the energetic Martin Spelmann as a link up-player between Fagerberg and the midfield. Horsens will try to hit Sporting on the counter while trying to maintain an intelligent pressure on Sporting’s midfielders and probably paying special attention to Elias.
Important playersThe most important player, Martin Retov, has only just returned from injury and who has played a few games for Denmark. He normally plays in a defensive midfield-position where he is one of the Danish league's best passers. But with Retov perhaps lacking match fitness - he made his comeback on Sunday - Martin Spelmann will be important for Horsens. He runs for 90 minutes and then some and has a certain knack for showing up in the right place in counter attacks. His finishing isn’t fantastic though.
Youngster Troels Klöve who plays wide in the midfield has been really good in 2012 and plays with a certain youthful vibrancy. But I am not sure he has the experience and necessary level to deliver against Sporting. In defence, the central pairing of Mads Agesen and Morten Rasmussen haven’t played too well this season. The defence is not very fast, so it's crucial for Horsens to have excellent defensive support from midfield.
The goalkeeper (and Danish youth international) Frederik Rönnow just turned 20 and only played his first league game for Horsens on 31 March this year. He is talented and is a good shot-stopper, but this will be an entirely new experience for him!
History in EuropeThe games against Elfsborg were Horsens’ very first games in European tournaments!
Horsens has done well over the last two-three-four years in signing cheap, fairly unknown Danish players who either couldn’t get into the starting line-up in bigger Danish teams or played well in the Danish First Division, so they don't have much European experience overall. They did well against Elfsborg though, but then again, the Danish league is just stronger than the Swedish and has been so for the last decade.
ExpectationsSporting took out Brondby and FC Nordsjalland twice over the last two seasons, and I think expectations for AC Horsens are lower than for the two aforementioned teams. FC Nordsjalland went on to win the Danish championship last season playing attractive, attacking football, and given that they could not knock out Sporting, nobody thinks Horsens can.
Johnny Molby, Horsens-coach:
“It is a good task. Sporting is a big club, and they play great football with a good technical level. We saw them last season where I thought FC Nordsjalland played well against them, but there is no doubt that Sporting CP are favourites against us. They have a lot of experience in European tournaments and have been here many times before.”
Thomas Kortegaard, fullback:
“Both Brondby and FC Nordsjalland have shown that it is possible to play even games against Sporting. Their games can obviously serve as an inspiration, and we'll watch these games to see, what they did well against Sporting. There is the possibility that they aren’t all that afraid of AC Horsens, which probably was the team that many wished to be drawn against. It is possible that they’ll underestimate us.”
Sá Pinto and company, you have been warned.
Our thanks to Troels Bager Thøgersen, from Tipsbladet
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LOL, yes I'm kidding.
Sporting was, is and will always be my most despised team. As a Benfiquista, there is no other way.
In saying that, I always wish Sporting well in European competition. No matter their current standing, they're still Portugals second biggest team. It's good when they are relevant and producing in Europe.
Drawing with Guimaraes was very very poor. I would say worst than Benfica's or Porto's draws.
Anyhow its silly and MDOT is correct, they played a weak side and needed those points. Losing points to weak teams hurts you down the stretch (see Benfica last season).
Also getting a draw to Guimarães which most people feel will be a team trying to avoid relegation this season, is a disappointment for a club that wants to be competitive. It wasn’t like Sporting our right dominated this weekend, so yea it’s fair to say they started the season disappointingly, especially given how their last season went. The Guimarães result is a very clear warning that Sporting can’t take any games lightly. So it’s a fair comment in an article that overwhelming talks about how Sporting should win this match.
“Given that they could not knock out Sporting, nobody thinks Horsens can.”
Good luck to Sporting and Maritimo today. We're only a few points away from passing Serie A as the 4th strongest liga in Europe. One more good year and we could very easily do it this year.
Clearly not long enough to see this page...
http://www.portugoal.net/index.php/about-contact
Tom, the editor, is a Sporting fan. I (Ben) support Olhanense, but Sporting are my 'big' team. Richard Cole, who does loads of our reports, is a Sporting fan.
Don't be silly now.
In closing Sporting made 4.3 million euros for their Europa League campaign last season and a 650k participation bonus for the group stage so hopefully they can get a deal done for Adrien Silva after a win here with the extra cash.