Malmö FF chose to leave out perhaps their biggest star, 28-year-old Taha Ali, in Sunday's Allsvenskan match with IFK Göteborg. The reason is that the Swedish World Cup player is on his way out.
He is close to a new club so we have chosen to remove him from the squad, said MFF sports director Philip Berglund to TV4 before the match.
In Ali's place - he is rumoured to be close to Greek club PAOK - Oscar Sjöstrand took up the position on the left wing. Sjöstrand impressed in the first half, including setting up Erik Botheim for the 3-0 goal, the Norwegian's second of the match, but it still ended badly for the 21-year-old.
Injury scare
Just before halftime, Sjöstrand was injured and limped off the field with what looked like a suspected cruciate ligament injury.
That didn't stop Malmö FF from overpowering IFK Göteborg. In came 19-year-old Anton Höög, who played his first Allsvenskan minutes against Degerfors last weekend. And now came the first Allsvenskan goal of his career.
The second half had barely begun before Erik Botheim played Höög through, and he rolled in 4-0.
"This was the best thing that could have happened. Coming in here and scoring goals has always been a dream," Anton Höög told TV4.
I didn't have time to think much because Oscar got injured so suddenly. I usually play as a "number eight" but I had to play as a left winger now. It was a success anyway.
Top team won
The victory means that MFF moves up to 19 points after twelve rounds, and keeps in touch with the teams immediately behind league leaders Sirius, who are up to 32 points after Sunday's 2-1 victory against Brommapojkarna. Hammarby beat Kalmar 2-0 and is second on 23 points, but "Bajen" has already played 13 games.
At the bottom, IFK Göteborg remains in the qualifying spot with only 10 points. Only Örgryte (9) and Halmstad (6) are worse.
