For the second time this football season, Hammarby dropped points, and for the first time, the league leader left the pitch without points and goals scored.
AIK came to the match with seven consecutive losses to Hammarby, the last time they took points was in the spring of 2021 (2–2) and the last win (4–1) came in the second tier the year before.
Saturday's 1–0 win was therefore long-awaited.
It feels absolutely wonderful. We know that "Bajen" is a really good team. It feels really nice to win against them. Especially when it's a derby. Bloody important points and extra fun that it's against "Bajen", says Villemo Dahlqvist, who scored the decisive goal, to Viaplay.
"Too bad"
At home at Skytteholms IP, AIK found a way to stop the green and white attacking machine, which had scored 19 goals in six matches until Saturday. The recipe consisted of not giving Hammarby players a millimeter unnecessarily, and simultaneously stressing the opponents with quick counter-attacks as soon as the opportunity arose.
Or as AIK's team captain Jennie Nordin saw the effort after 45 minutes:
We stand up very well in defense and are close to them, we are compact. We should be satisfied with the first half, said Nordin to Viaplay.
Hammarby's goalkeeper Anna Tamminen was dissatisfied with their play for the same reasons:
It's too bad. We lose the ball too much and don't have control over their counter-attacks. We need to step up, said Tamminen.
Double post hits
After the break, AIK players stretched themselves further, the courage became greater even offensively. Hammarby dominated ball possession but created nothing, except for Cathinka Tandberg's header in the 75th minute.
And a few minutes after Tandberg's post hit, it went the other way instead.
Jada Whyman kicked a long clearance, Adelisa Grabus won a header duel. The rebound found Haruna Tabata, who in turn kicked a low pass to Villemo Dahlqvist. The 22-year-old turned away her defender and calmly rolled in 1–0 to AIK.
Emilie Joramo shot into the post for Hammarby in the final minutes, but the equalizer was missing.
It's sad, you always want to win the derbies. But they were better than us in the decisive situations. It's damn sad, I think we have all the play but it's the last little thing that's missing, says Cathinka Tandberg to Viaplay.
