The scenes after the final whistle in Växjö said the most.
The Öster players lay or sat on the lawn, seemingly paralyzed after having scored zero in the bottom game in front of the home crowd.
With two rounds left, the Smålanders are now down on the relegation spot.
It's tough right now, says Öster's goal scorer Alibek Aliev to HBO Max.
Especially after our 1-1 goal, they have hardly anything, the goal comes from nowhere. The margins are on their side. That's how football is sometimes. Sometimes it's post in, sometimes it's post out.
"Did not understand"
At the same time, the Degerfors players did not want to stop celebrating the victory with the traveling supporters. Elias Barsoum became a big hero when he, on a pass from Dijan Vukojevic, pushed in the winning goal via a backheel.
The three-pointer means that Degerfors swaps places with Öster in the table and now lies on qualifying spot.
We've talked a lot about filling the box and being hungry in there. I take a run and see what happens. Then it went in, I didn't understand that it was me who made the goal. It was just nice to see it go in, says Barsoum to HBO Max.
After a fairly eventless first hour, everything happened during the last half hour.
It was Degerfors who delivered the first blow.
Phillippe Ndinga's preliminary work led to Arman Taranis being able to push in 1-0 in the net in the 66th minute.
Öster replied when a pass from Matias Tamminen was pushed into the goal by Alibek Aliev in the 78th minute.
Differ by one point
When most things pointed to a draw, the goal that took Degerfors to slightly safer ground came.
We still have two matches left, so you have to celebrate a bit with restraint, says Degerfors coach Henok Goitom.
Degerfors stands on 26 points, Öster has 25 and a better goal difference.
For Degerfors, matches against Hammarby (at home) and Brommapojkarna (away) remain. Öster has Gais (away) and Djurgården (at home) left to face.
