For the 2025–2026 season, the goal has been promotion to the 1st Division in the Betinia Liga. In the match against FC Roskilde, AB Gladsaxe lost 2–1, and a group of disappointed players, staff and fans had to accept that there would be no promotion from that game.
There was still a chance of promotion if HIK could take points in the match against Næstved at Næstved Stadion. And HIK won 2–1, and that result means Næstved are now too far behind to catch AB.
AB have now secured one of the two promotion spots to the Betinia Liga. Whether AB will also win the 2nd Division will be decided by the final four matches.
The squad, staff and AB’s fans had to wait almost an hour before the match between Næstved and HIK finished and the result was clear. So on this Wednesday evening, everyone around AB went through the full range of emotions and could celebrate promotion together.

AB’s line-up
For today’s match – 13 May 2026 – against FC Roskilde, the coaching staff made a few changes to the starting XI compared to the last match against Thisted. Travian Sousa started at left-back instead of Mikkel Brund. Søren Ilsøe took over the central midfield spot from Alfred Horup. On the right wing, O´Vonte Mullings started, and Tobias Hageltorn took a seat on the bench.

The starting XI then looked like this
In goal: Adam Ingi Benediktsson; right-back: Frederik Lindgaard; centre-backs: Adrien Koudelka and Marc Dal Hende (captain); left-back: Travian Sousa; midfield: Marco Vesterholm and Søren Ilsøe. On the left wing: Casper Grening, and on the right wing: O´Vonte Mullings. Up front: Jonathan Mathys and Noah Engell.

Match report
Today’s important match was watched by 1,544 spectators, who gave great support, well backed by AB Forever. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn into the promotion party everyone had hoped for at first – but promotion later became a reality.
AB lost 2–1, with Roskilde’s Mads Carlson scoring after 18 minutes. Adrian Koudelka equalised to make it 1–1 after 59 minutes, and Bjarni Adalsteinsson made it 2–1 after 83 minutes. FC Roskilde were reduced to 10 men when Kasper Danielsen Nygaard was shown his second yellow card after 70 minutes and had to head to the dressing room.
It was a match of missed chances for AB, but also two strong goalkeeping performances. AB created a huge number of chances and actually played a good game. FC Roskilde, however, wanted to play too and at times put AB under good pressure and had several counter-attacks.
FC Roskilde sat deep and in several situations managed to shut down AB’s otherwise lively attacking play. The sending-off meant FC Roskilde dropped even deeper.
What couldn’t happen – and especially not with 10 players against 9 – happened after 83 minutes, when FC Roskilde’s Bjarni Adalsteinsson, on a quick counter, cut through AB’s defence and put FC Roskilde 2–1 up. Before that lead, AB had a number of chances after really good, organised attacking play, but today they didn’t get more than the one goal. That goal, however, was a very good one: from a free kick, Noah Engell sent a ball into the box, where Marc Dal Hende headed it on to Adrian Koudelka, who headed it into the net.

The first substitution came after 83 minutes, when Alfred Horup came on and took Søren Ilsøe’s place in midfield. Five minutes later, Frederik Lindegaard went off and Tobias Hageltorn came on. Tobias Lykkebak replaced Casper Grening.

Captain Marc Dal Hende was frustrated about the missed chances: “It’s really disappointing that we didn’t win today in front of all the fans who showed up. I think a lot of the team got goosebumps when we ran onto the pitch with that fantastic support. It’s a real shame we let people down, because everything was set up for a party, but that’s football too. I think we did a lot of things right. But Roskilde were more clinical than us today.”
It’s a shame we didn’t score from our many chances. It was one of those days where we just lacked that final sharpness, and probably at both ends. That happens sometimes, and I think the lads put 100% into it – and that’s the most important thing for us.
We’ve won a lot of matches lately and I look a lot at performances, and this was a good performance, so it doesn’t knock us. Roskilde always play well and they did fine today too. We should have got more out of it today. I’m confident going into the last matches.
Now there’s another final waiting on Sunday against Vendsyssel. They did really well the last time we played them here at home. So it’s a great challenge waiting in Hjørring. It could well be a fixture we’ll also see in the 1st Division next season. There was some physicality and presence that I felt we lacked the last time we played Vendsyssel.
Now we need to switch back on again, because we mustn’t think we’re too good for this division. We need to close it out now and tie the bag as quickly as possible,” Marc Dal Hende concludes.

Head coach Fannar Berg Gunnolfsson said the players did most things right: “As I told the players, we did most things right. In football there usually aren’t that many goals, and when we don’t take our chances, we get punished. Roskilde maybe had three shots in the match, and they scored two goals. We could easily have scored six, but we didn’t, and then we get punished.”
We knew Roskilde would come with a lot of energy. No team wants to be the one that loses and has to watch the opponent celebrate and enjoy the win. We were prepared for Roskilde, and most of what we set up worked – it was just the final part that was missing, because we didn’t get the ball in the net today.
I don’t think the players were nervous; that’s just how the match turned out. In the first half it was fairly even, and then we got control of it. The first five minutes of the second half we were a bit sloppy, but after that we took control of the game. There were no signs the players were stressed or anything, so it’s a match we could have won, but we couldn’t get that last bit,” Fannar Berg Gunnolfsson concludes.

When promotion became a reality, there were naturally some slightly different comments and smiles from the captain and the head coach.

Marc Dal Hende: “I feel really, really good. Of course, it wasn’t the way we’d imagined it would happen. But listen, as long as it happens – and we have to send a shout-out to HIK.”
It just caps off a fantastic season that’s been built over a long time. Hard work from all the lads, and it’s so deserved that it happened today, even though it wasn’t us who could decide it ourselves. So nice, for once, to get help from the outside,” a big-smiling Marc concludes.

Fannar Berg Gunnolfsson: “I don’t think we should read too much into the fact that we got a good result from HIK. I think we’re getting promoted on our terms and through our effort. Whether HIK had lost today doesn’t matter, in my opinion. We’re going up because we have the points we need.”
Of course it was exciting whether HIK could win or draw. It was fantastic to see all the many fans cheering, singing and dancing together with the players. I wish we could have given the many spectators and fans in the stands a win, so we could have celebrated promotion together after our own match. That said, we’re in the 1st Division next season, and we’re all really happy about that,” a happy and satisfied Fannar concludes.

The next match will be played in Hjørring against Vendsyssel on Sunday 17 May 2026 at 13:00 at Nord Energi Arena.