On a sunny – at least initially – and beautiful and cozy Vedbæk Stadium, where a lot of effort had been put into creating a beautiful setting for tonight’s cup match, AB Gladsaxe advanced in the Oddset Cup this evening with a 3-1 victory over FC Rudersdal. The goals were scored by Steven Bala, Jonathan Mathys and Marcus Immersen.

AB’s Lineup
Compared to the starting lineup in Saturday’s match against Ishøj IF, only central defender Noah Ibsen remained in the starting eleven. AB started with Nicholas Christoffersen in goal, Tobias Damtoft at right back, Noah Ibsen and Jeppe Gertsen in central defense, and Noah Poulsen at left back. In midfield were Marco Vesterholm and Noah Maale, with Tobias Hageltorn and Osama Murshed on the wings. Up front were Steven Bala and Jonathan Mathys.

At the start of the second half, Alfred Horup came on and Steven Bala took a place on the bench. Frederik Jørgensen replaced Noah Ibsen in central defense. With about 15 minutes left of regular time, Fredrik Lindgaard and Marcus Immersen came on for Jonathan Mathys and Marco Vesterholm.

Debut
Today’s match marked the first-team debut for Jeppe Gertsen, Tobias Damtoft, Marco Vesterholm, Jonathan Mathys, Steven Bala, Frederik Jørgensen, and Marcus Immersen.

Summary
In general, FC Rudersdal played their chances and it wasn’t until the end of the match that there was any sign of fatigue. It was clear that AB as a team had not played together before and the relationships were obviously not in place. AB applied aggressive pressure from the start and had a lot of possession. However, it was FC Rudersdal who had the first opportunity, but the finish ended with a shot over AB’s goal. Osama Murshed had a chance to score after a quick play, but FC Rudersdal’s goalkeeper was down low and blocked the shot. Steven Bala wanted it differently, and he intercepted a random ball and sprinted off, took a simple move into the box, and was felled. The referee awarded a penalty kick and Steven Bala scored safely for 1-0 in the 18th minute.

FC Rudersdal picked up a set-piece error and had a shot on goal, but AB’s Nicholas Christoffersen made a good save. Tobias Damtoft sent a good cross into the box, but the ball landed on the opposite side, where a new cross gave a good chance of finishing inside the frame, but Jonathan Mathys headed just past the post. The score at half-time was 1-0 to AB.

AB again lost the ball in midfield, and FC Rudersdal had a chance for a good finish, but the shot ended well over the goal. After 57 minutes, there was some confusion in AB’s build-up play, and FC Rudersdal had a scoring opportunity, but Nicholas Christoffersen pulled off a fantastic save. Just two minutes later, FC Rudersdal played well and quickly up the field, and a shot from Emil Langhoff brought the equalizer to 1-1 after 61 minutes.

Just five minutes later, AB launched a counterattack and quickly moved up the field and into the box. The referee awarded a penalty, which Jonathan Mathys converted to give AB a 2-1 lead. At the same time as the penalty, FC Rudersdal’s Valdemar Schambye was sent off.

After the sending off and AB’s opening goal, it became difficult for FC Rudersdal. AB moved the ball around quietly and had control of the match. As the stadium clock ticked down to 90 minutes, the rain poured down. Marcus Immersen closed the game with a goal, where he sprinted towards goal and scored a great goal for 3-1, which was the result of the match.

Captain Jeppe Gertsen felt it was a classic cup match:
“First of all, it’s great that we progressed in the cup. That’s what we came for, so that’s really good. It turned into a classic cup match. We went ahead and then missed a bunch of chances. They were never really dangerous—we should’ve been up by 3 or 4 goals. But we weren’t, and then they hit us on the counter, where we didn’t manage to pull the offside trap and some confusion led to them scoring.

Overall, I think we played a good game. We haven’t played that much together as a team, and I think many put in a solid performance. A game like this helps build relationships on the pitch, which is good for the team, and it’s good to get everyone going. A couple more goals would have been nice – but we’re through to the next round of the cup, and that’s the most important thing,” concludes Jeppe Gertsen.

Head coach Joey Gudjonsson found positives in the match:
“It was a bit of a strange game, but we completely dominated it. I think they had one shot on target, and unfortunately it went in. It was a silly mistake on our part that gave them the ball. We lost possession in our own third of the pitch. It was careless, and any team can score from a mistake like that. We should have scored many more goals, but overall I’m satisfied with the performance. We were always going to win that kind of game over 90 minutes.”

The players came with a good attitude and put good will and energy into it. The players got a lot of minutes in their legs, and there were hardly any repeats from the last match. A lot of young players got a lot of minutes, so that’s really satisfying. It was good to see them play and also to see the new players. It wasn’t a perfect game, but you don’t have to be perfect in a cup game because it’s all about winning and moving on to the next round – which we are now and it will be exciting to see who our next opponent will be,” concludes Joye Gudjonsson.

The draw for the 2nd round will take place on August 11, 2025 and the match date is September 2-4, 2025: “We’re not going home – we’re going on!”