Gulbrandsen gave Molde the lead before the break, but Sandefjord turned the game around after the break. Sandefjord had only taken one point in their first four games before Sunday’s round.
– It was really nice to win here at home, said Sandefjord player Stian Kristiansen to TV 2 after the match.
– I think it’s an insanely good performance. We drive over Molde for large parts of the game, continued the Sandefjord defender.
Molde coach Erling Moe made no secret of the fact that the visitors’ performance was not good enough in Sandefjord.
Hard sentence
– What we deliver today is probably a bottom level that I have not been involved in before. The performance we put together today is far from the standard we have for ourselves, Moe told TV 2.
However, Molde broke through after 35 minutes. Defender Isak Helstad Amundsen took the ball from his own half and then played it up to Fredrik Gulbrandsen. The Molde striker hammered home from outside the 16-metre area and sent the ball high into the net over Sandefjord goalkeeper Hugo Keto.
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The 31-year-old scored his first goal in the Eliteserien after his comeback in Norwegian football. Gulbrandsen has only played three league games so far, as a result of an injury he sustained in the season opener.
Critical Molde profile
Magnus Wolff Eikrem was nevertheless not satisfied with his own team’s performance in the first half of the match.
– We look like an obosliga team, Wolff Eikrem told TV 2 during the break.
Sandefjord had a good opening in the second half, and already six minutes after the break, Eman Markovic bent the ball into the goal against the old club. However, a VAR check disallowed the goal for offside.
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A quarter of an hour later, Christopher Cheng found teammate Simon Amin inside the 16-metre area, and the 26-year-old put the ball into the goal behind Molde goalkeeper Jacob Karlstrøm.
Turnaround operation
Twelve minutes before the end, Sandefjord managed to turn the game in their favour. Stian Kristiansen headed a corner kick into the goal.
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– Sandefjord had a clear advantage after the break. Molde has not come to grips properly, said TV 2’s football expert Simen Stamsø Møller in FotbalXtra.
In overtime, Aleksander Nilsson made it 3-1 for Sandefjord.
Sandefjord meets Sarpsborg in the next elite series round. Molde faces the same opponent in the cup in midweek, before Rosenborg awaits in the Eliteserien next weekend.
