TRONDHEIM (VG) (Rosenborg-Strømsgodset 2-2) Rosenborg fought back in the match, but abused the opportunity to secure 4th place and still hope for games in Europe in 2022.
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– Now I will drive home, and book a flight to Denmark, and do away with a funeral on Tuesday. Then I’ll just relax, unwind, and not think so much about football. Try to enjoy life as best you can, says Hareide to VG.
After fifty years in football, 35 of them as coaches, Åge Hareide (68) has become a football pensioner. The impressive merit list consists of matches for Hødd, Molde, Norwich and Bayern Munich, among others, as well as fifty international matches for Norway.
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As club coach, Hareide has led Molde and Rosenborg on two occasions each, in addition to leading the national teams to both Norway and Denmark. Hareide led the latter to the European Championships in 2021, a championship he was not allowed to participate in when the contract expired in 2020 when the European Championships were actually to be held.
It was this summer that Hareide announced that the 2021 season will be his last as a coach. It is mainly family reasons that make Hareide now want to spend less time on football, and more time on those who have been waiting patiently for him.
Disappointing first half
In the farewell match, Rosenborg was dependent on a result at least as good as both Lillestrøm and Vålerenga to secure 4th place that can provide qualifying games for next year’s Conference league (if Bodø / Glimt, Molde or Viking win the NM 2021 this spring).
If one is to interpret the first half, it did not seem that the home team’s players were interested in giving the coach the farewell he wanted. In a very poor chance for Rosenborg in the first half, the away team went to the break with a 2-0 lead.
After 13 minutes, Lars Vilsvik sent a free kick in high over the penalty box. Then Rosenborg stopper Even Hovland was last on the ball and sent the ball into his own net midway through the half, after Halldor Stenevik pulled down to the dead line and hit in front of goal.
– What happened today is symptomatic of the whole season. We created big problems for ourselves in a match that required a different result. When we concede two goals, it will be a long way up, Hareide says after the match.
–Desperate victory hunt
Hareide made a triple change at the break, and Noah Holm and Emil Konradsen Ceide made sure to pick up the pace on the home team. After several scare shots, it was finally Holm who fixed the penalty kick twenty minutes before the end.
Stefano Vecchia provided new excitement in the match.
At the same time as Strømsgodset fell further and further back in the field, the home team kept up the pace. Holm and Ceide alone made sure to create more dangerous situations in a few minutes than the home team did in the first half. Five minutes before the end came the match’s second own goal. Strømsgodset’s Ari Leifsson had been substituted two minutes earlier and in a duel with Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul, the Icelander sent the ball into his own net after Erlend Dahl Reitan’s post.
Rosenborg desperately chased the winning goal that would give 4th place, but closer than a couple of imprecise posts from good positions, the home team did not come in what could have been the perfect farewell gift to Hareide.
Trainerjakten
As the elite series season is now over, Rosenborg is practically without a coach. There is great excitement associated with the coach hunt, where both Kjetil Rekdal and Kjetil Knutsen will be relevant candidates, after Miloš Milojević has said no to Rosenborg.
Who will replace Hareide as Rosenborg coach, Hareide himself says that he knows little about.
– I do not know. I have not been involved, and have not interfered in it. I really have no idea, because I have only followed the case in the media. As long as I work with the team, I do not want to interfere so much, Hareide says to VG.
It was not just Hareide who received flowers from Rosenborg’s general manager, Tove Moe Dyrhaug, before kick-off. Alexander Tettey is also now putting his football player’s shoes on the shelf, before he is scheduled to become a coach at the Rosenborg Academy.
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