Djurgarden – Haecken

The vice-champion will not let himself be beaten by the champion at home

The reigning champions and vice-champions of Sweden will not meet on the scheduled dates in the Allsvenskan calendar. The meeting between last season's top two teams was due to take place in early August, but both clubs will be taking part in the European continental qualifiers at that time. It is a common practice in Sweden to move the calendar around in favour of European competitions. In the last Allsvenskan, Hecken and Djurgården competed in the final stretch for the league title, but the Gothenburg club proved more determined and finished with a seven-point advantage over the capital side. After almost a third of the current season, the clubs have different objectives. While Höcken have strengthened in the off-season and show clear intentions to defend the title at the end of the new Allsvenskan season, Djurgården are in search of their game, showing mediocre results and, as a consequence, are centrally positioned in the standings. The bookmakers are undecided about the favourite of the upcoming meeting, offering only a slight slant in the odds in favour of the home side. Djurgården have shown very predictable results since the start of the championship. For the match with the champion, the capital club has played four home and five away games. Djurgården won all their home games and lost all away games, except for the trip to Uppsala. Of course, with such a trend, the Stockholm team cannot claim high positions at the end of the season. Especially when you consider the form shown by Malmö, Elfsborg and Hecken in the first third of the championship. The visitors to the upcoming game are having an extremely difficult week. Last Thursday, Hecken won the Swedish Cup final against Mjölby, before narrowly beating top-seeded Allsveskan on the home field three days later, forcing Malmö to pull back twice (2-2). The third game in seven days and the third outside the home stadium will be played amid physical and mental fatigue. Taking into account that Djurgården show an incomparably better game on home soil than away, we should only feel sorry for Hecken. Moreover, the Moscow side will be looking for revenge for their 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Wasps three weeks ago.