Hammarby continued the pursuit of series-leading Mjällby when they visited Halmstad at Örjans Vall to pick up three important points. For the home team HBK, it was about continuing to fight to stay in the football Allsvenskan.
The match start was chance-scarce and at the pause it was goalless.
Cold shower after the break
Early in the second act, Hammarby was shocked and the home supporters got to cheer. Villiam Granath scored the leading goal for the Halländers, his third goal of the season.
The result stood for the rest of the match and Hammarby's chance of their first Swedish Championship gold in 24 years looks extremely small. Team captain Nahir Besara was disappointed after the match.
Not a good match. We did what we could. Difficult ground to play on. They get a chance and score a goal on it, he says to HBO Max.
Mjällby traveled at the same time to Stockholm and Grimsta in pursuit of revenge after the loss of points last time against Öster (1–1). On the other side stood a form-strong Brommapojkarna, who last took a tough win against IFK Göteborg with 1–0.
The match start was cautious and chance-scarce. Mjällby made the most threatening attempts but without really putting Davor Blazevic to the test in the BP goal.
Early red card
The first half ended goalless but the drama did not wait after the break. Early in the second half, Mjällby's Uba Charles was shown the red card after having knocked down Oliver Zandén.
Mjällby could, despite reduced manpower, make the winning goal with about a quarter left to play. Herman Johansson stayed ahead on a corner and pushed in the decisive goal for the team from Listerlandet.
Five rounds remain of the Allsvenskan and Mjällby now has a lead of eleven points down to Hammarby. Already next weekend, the team can become champions, in a jacket. Then Mjällby needs to defeat Elfsborg on Saturday and Hammarby lose points against IFK Göteborg the day after.
It's probably fun. We just have to do our thing and take one match at a time, says Mjällby's midfield star Elliot Stroud.
The Allsvenskan point record is in danger for AIK and Malmö FF who share the record with 67 Allsvenskan points in a season. Mjällby currently has 60.
