Hammarby won the match 2–1. With the victory, the home team passed MFF and now leads the series with 39 points, one ahead of Malmö FF. Third-place Häcken, which is another two points behind, has not played its match in the 17th round.
An incredibly important match, it felt like a six-pointer. We have to struggle throughout the whole match. You can see how important this was for us and for them in the stands, it was fun to do it in front of so many people too, says Julie Blakstad to SVT.
The top match was moved from Hammarby's regular arena Kanalplan to the larger 3 arena, and was played in front of 6,372 spectators.
Early goal
Hammarby took command directly in the match and the first goal came already in the tenth minute when Ellen Wangerheim headed in 1–0 after a corner. Her 13th goal of the season.
We have worked hard on that (corners), we know that we have good scoring opportunities because we have good heading players, she says to SVT at halftime.
She admits that the early goal was nice to get.
Absolutely, it's nice to get an early goal. We had most of the ball possession and tried to get the crowd with us. We showed the newcomers that we are a notch better, says Wangerheim.
With ten minutes left of the half, 2–0 came – through Julie Blakstad, the full-back who made her tenth goal of the year.
We came out well in the first half and had good pressure the first half hour. Then Malmö came into the match. In the second half, it was more about protecting our own goal. Today, it's about the three points and we don't care how it looked, she says.
"Extremely frustrating"
Despite greater ball possession by MFF, and more pressure on Hammarby's goal, the away team did not manage to get the ball into the goal until the 88th minute when they managed to score a reduction – on an invitation from goalkeeper Melina Loeck. She was late to kick out the ball and Nathalie Hoff Persson snatched the ball and put it in the goal.
Malmö's Sara Kanutte was very disappointed after the loss, above all for her own performance in the first half.
It's extremely frustrating, I had two or three chances that I should have scored on. I'm extremely disappointed in myself, it affects the team and it's sad, she says to SVT.
