On Friday evening, AB put in a solid performance on a tough away ground and beat Thisted 2–1. It was never a great football spectacle for the 344 spectators who had turned up at Sparekassen Thy Arena. In return, they got a match full of fight, plenty of duels, and three great goals.

The coaching staff had shaken things up compared to the last three matches’ starting line-ups, which had been unchanged. In today’s match against Thisted, Frederik Lindgaard took over at right-back from Tobias Damtoft. Mikkel Brund started at left-back instead of Travian Sousa. Alfred Horup took the central midfield spot from Søren Ilsøe. Milan Silva Rasmusen had a minor injury and wasn’t in the squad for Thisted. He was replaced by Casper Grening, who was placed on the left wing. Tobias Hageltorn started on the right wing, and O´Vonte Mullings took a seat on the bench.

The starting line-up was then as follows
In goal: Adam Ingi Benediktsson; right-back: Frederik Lindgaard; centre-backs: Adrien Koudelka and Marc Dal Hende (captain); left-back: Mikkel Brund; midfield: Marco Vesterholm and Alfred Horup. On the left wing: Casper Grening, and on the right wing: Tobias Hageltorn. Up front: Jonathan Mathys and Noah Engell.

Match report
The match was marked by lots of long passes over the middle—more than we usually see from AB. That also led to plenty of headed clearances, with the ball often ending up in random areas of the pitch. That was the case for both teams.

AB had plenty of chances, but not every finish was quite on target today. On top of that, Thisted goalkeeper Andreas Raahauge made several really good saves, and a couple of AB efforts were cleared off the line by the Thisted defence. The scoring didn’t get going until after 39 minutes. Jonathan Mathys hit an overhead kick and the ball almost flew into the top of the net to make it 1–0. It was a superb goal, among AB’s best of the season.

Casper Grening was substituted and O’Vonte Mullings took over on the right wing. He needed no more than a minute: a pass from midfield found him, and in his familiar style—with that quick burst—he drove towards goal and delivered a precise cross from the byline into the box for Jonathan Mathys, who scored at the second attempt to make it 2–0.
After 73 minutes, AB made a triple substitution. Jeppe Gertsen took over at right-back from Frederik Lindgaard, Tobias Lykkebak pushed forward and replaced Jonathan Mathys up front. Søren Ilsøe came on in central midfield and Marco Vesterholm took a seat on the bench. In the 81st minute, Emil Mygind came on and replaced Noah Engell up front.

Overall, the players who came on in the second half also put in a big shift, which meant AB could keep up the pressure and their play. Thisted are a good team who fought throughout and looked for counter-attacks. That gave AB’s back line a couple of challenges, where they had to chase down a Thisted player through on goal. Thisted’s shots were often not sharp enough and therefore didn’t cause major problems for AB’s defense.
Only in the 93rd minute did Valdemar Engstrøm pull one back to 1–2 with a fine long-range strike, as AB switched off a little. In the final 2–3 minutes, Thisted pushed everyone forward and applied good pressure, but it never became truly dangerous.
None of the 344 spectators were in any doubt that captain Marc Dal Hende not only played a really good match, but also led AB’s troops superbly.

Captain Marc Dal Hende highlights the hard work: “I think we start a little bit shaky, where we give them some counter-attacks we didn’t want to. After half an hour, I think we’re on top of the game, and that continues throughout. I think we play a really strong second half, where Thisted more or less don’t create anything. At the end they score a great long-range goal, and you just have to take your hat off to that—a really fine goal.”
We put in a very mature performance. A comfortable win in a very difficult place to play. Even though they pulled one back in stoppage time and there were still minutes to play, I had a good feeling. With how the match had gone, I thought we’d see it out.

When they score at that point, we knew they’d throw everything forward. I think all the defenders and our number six dealt with it well in the duels, and Adam also came up with saves. So I felt pretty comfortable throughout. We probably should have killed the game before the final phase with a bit more ruthlessness with our big chances. But all in all, I’m incredibly proud of the lads for the pressure the front players put on. It fits perfectly with our DNA—everyone just worked incredibly hard all over the pitch, and it’s a pleasure—so there were big celebrations in the dressing room,” Marc Dal Hende concludes.


Head coach Fannar Berg Gunnolfsson says it was a professional performance from the players: “I think the win was convincing, but it was a difficult match. Thisted didn’t get over the halfway line in the second half until 85 minutes had been played. We dominated the entire second half, and it’s not easy to come here and do that. Of course, we should have scored more goals. We have to respect that Thisted are a good football team; we come here after a long bus trip and we perform the way we did—it was a big win for us.”

We got a bit careless at the end and they scored, but it was a fantastic strike—yes, it was a dream goal. Apart from that, I don’t think they threatened us from the 1st to the 85th minute.


The lads’ performances were big and good today. We knew we had to play a tough match, and we won. I asked Mathys what kind of goal it was that he scored. And he said it was a “Ronaldo overhead kick”—it was an absolutely brilliant goal and really well executed with great quality.

Overall, it was a professional performance from all my players today. There were quite a few changes to the starting line-up, because we have a big squad. I trust every single player, and in the next two matches we’ll need everyone. Next weekend we’re going on another long bus trip, and before that we have a midweek match. The pace we play at week after week is very demanding. So we want to rotate and change things up a bit from time to time,” Fannar Berg Gunnolfsson concludes.

The next match is free for residents of Gladsaxe and will be played at Gladsaxe Stadium on Wednesday, 13 May 2026 at 18:00 against FC Roskilde.