Alesund (Norway) is a Scandinavian football club with more than a century of history. However, he managed to reach the highest level relatively recently. If you want to know what success has been achieved recently by Alesund (Norway), who became an opponent of the Moscow Spartak in one of the friendly matches held in the winter window, then this article is for you.
The history of the championship of Norway
So, of course, for every football club, the local championship is one of the most important tournaments, and Alesund was no exception. Norway is not the most football country in Europe, but the competition there is quite high, so this club had to spend a lot of time trying to get into the big leagues. This article will consider only the latest history of the club, that is, what happened in the new millennium. It was then that he began his journey to the fame of Alesund. Norway has a multi-level championship, and this club at the beginning of the millennium was in the First Division, the second most powerful league in the country. In 2001, the club took sixth place, and already in 2002 was in second place, which allowed him to rise to the Premier League. The team was able to hold out there for only a year, having left 13th place.
A year later, Alesund again took second place, went to the Premier League - and again proved to be not strong enough to stay there, took 13th place and returned to the First Division. And only in 2006 the third entry into the Major League was successful, and the club was able to gain a foothold there. Over the next three seasons, he was on the verge of relegation, but managed to resist, and in 2010 he worked a miracle, taking fourth place in the national championship. Unfortunately, it did not work out to win it at the club, he could only repeat success in 2013, again taking fourth place. Last season, Aalesund finished ninth in the championship, but this time it has not started very well, having earned only one point in three matches and being in 15th place out of 16.
Story about the Norwegian Cup
The way Alesund FC (Norway) plays in the country's Cup can be called much more successful than its results in the Norwegian championship. Back in 2002, he reached the semifinals, and in 2003 he stopped at the quarter-final stage. This was followed by a period of setbacks, which suddenly ended in 2009, when, after four years of setbacks and setbacks in the fourth round, Aalesund won the Norwegian Cup. This was the club’s first trophy in history. In the next season, as you already know, the club took a record fourth place for itself in the League, but did not succeed in the Cup. But in 2011, to the surprise of everyone, Alesund won the Norwegian Cup for the second time. Unfortunately, today this trophy was the last for the club, but in the following years, Alesund took off at the third and fourth stages of the tournament. This year, the Norwegian Cup has not yet begun, the first round is scheduled for late April.
About Eurocups
As you can guess, Alesund is not the club that often visits Eurocups. He first appeared there in 2010 due to the fact that in 2009 he won the Norwegian Cup, but in the third qualifying round of the Europa League, the club flew out from the Scottish Motherwell. A year later, the club managed to get to the playoff qualifying round, defeating the Welsh “Nit”, the Hungarian “Ferencvaros” and the Swedish “Elfsborg” along the way. In the playoff round, it all started more than well, Alesund beat the Dutch AZ with a score of 2: 1, however, it was too early to rejoice, because in the return match the Dutch defeated the Norwegians with an indecent score of 6: 0.
The following year, Alesund defeated the Albanian Tirana in the second qualifying round, but lost in the third APOEL club from Cyprus. Since then, the Norwegian club did not occupy a high enough place in the championship and did not win the Cup to qualify for participation in Eurocups.
Match with Spartak
An average Russian fan would hardly have known about the existence of such a club if it had not been for the Spartak - Alesund match. Norway, as mentioned earlier, is not a football country, so few people have enough information about clubs from this state. The Alesund match with Spartak took place in February of this year, and the Moscow club was able to win 3-1.
Considering the composition of the Norwegian club, which he put up for a duel about Spartak, we can conclude the strength of this club. Goalkeeper Andreas Lee stood at the gate. Ramstein and Gretarson played at the defense center, and Kirkeskov and Arnarson played along the defense flanks. It is surprising that only the goalkeeper is the Norwegian among them, among the defenders are two Icelanders, a Danish and a Dutchman. The forehead midfield center is exclusively Norwegian; it consists of Riise and Carlsen. On the flanks are the Icelander Trandarson and another Dutchman, Giasi. And in the attack there is a pair of Berisha-Abdellaue, who in the match with the Muscovites could not be noted for productive actions. The only goal in the match “Spartak” (Russia) - “Alesund” (Norway) was scored by the defender Gretarsson from the side of the guests, while Luis Adriano, Roman Zobnin and substitute Quincy Promes scored goals from the Muscovites.