Mjällby AIF 4 - 2 Malmö FF

Malmö FF had not won in Strandvallen against MAIF since a century or so ago, and they could not change that fact today either.
Difficult conditions today, with eastern wind and small rain, soaking grass, players and public (all 7125 of us).

Mjällby started the game with a lot of pressure, keeping Malmö pretty much in their half-pitch for a good half of the period.
The first goal came quickly, a free kick on the left some meters after the central line, towards Robledo at the away pole (his defender couldn't keep up on several occasions, it may have to do with being 20cm shorter), who heads it back to the 1st pole, where Musse Pigg is all alone, and just has to push it in. 1-0 (11').
Malmö pushes, but mostly long balls for Bagarn and Robledo, back to the sender. They loose a ball in the middle to Eken, who instantaneously launches Musse again in depth, no off-side, and wins his one-on-one with the Malmö keeper. 2-0 (22').
Just before the break, Grahn brings the ball to the right side all the way to the back line, turns back and centers, Eken is not in position to shoot but deviates towards the 2nd pole to Löken who is all alone there, almost exactly the same position as El Kabir for the 1st goal. 3-0 (44')

3-0 at the break, Malmö FF is stunned. For a team claiming to be in the fight for gold this season, against a team who's only supposed to stay in Allsvenska, it's borderline humiliating. The shots on goal count is 6-1, a good summary of the 1st half.
I wouldn't have wanted to be in Malmö's changing room at half-time, they came back with a completely different spirit. The higher tempo paid off quickly, while Mjällby's defense was playing a little easy maybe. 1st goal a copy of Musse's second (51'). 2nd goal on a corner kick, some confusion in front of the goal, but the ball ands up in the net.
From that point on Mjällby went back to playing a very safe defense, kept a lot of pressure in the middle, and that was more or less the end of it for Malmö, who went back to shotting long ball to Bagarn and Robledo.

At the end of the game both Löken and Manne had shots in almost the same position, a little left at the entrance of the 11m zone. Manne's shot passed right by the pole, and Löken's was deviated by Malmö keeper. It could have been 5-2, but more importantly it could have killed the game.
At the 92nd minute, Nicklasson got a ball behind the middle line (not offside), brought it all the way up and shot, again from the left side, and he didn't miss. 4-2. Game over.

Malmö's trainer was quite disappointed, quoting his team's performance in the 1st period as their worst period of the year. I would add that the 2nd period was better for about 15 minutes. Good play in the middle, but not much in the front, very stereotyped longballs in the center.
Like Helsingborg, Malmö scored on their 2 dangerous occasions (only one for HIF). The difference this time is that Mjällby had already made 3 goals.

Mr Referee was ok.

I will give a thumbs up to the Malmö FF supporters, who were pushing their team all the way to the end in a good spirit. Put a lot of ambiance in the stadium, and fairly and quietly admitted their team was not the better one today.

I will not go through all Mjällby players one by one, just say this: I liked Mjällby's play-style today. They kept a lot of pressure on Malmö in the middle and front, who had a very hard time bringing up the ball. They played the game that we have had most problem with, and when it's us doing it the other team has problem too. Yes it takes a lot of running, but we intercepted about as many passes as Malmö did, balls that we could then bring up and do something with. We were not just defending 45 minutes to protect the score, but still pushing up to make more goals.
That's the Mjällby I want to see more of. That's the Mjällby that completely deserves their 4th place of the league. Keep that style and we can climb some positions. Who want's to see MAIF in Champions' or Europa League in 2011? Sign me up.