Molde Football Club won Norway’s annual cup final for the second year in a row on Sunday, beating rival Odd Grenland by a score of 2-0 at the country’s national football stadium at Ullevaal in Oslo. Molde fans went wild as their team also scored their second major victory of the season.
This year’s cup final actually pitted Norway’s two best teams against each other. Molde already had won the league championship, also for the second year in a row, and again beating Odd, which placed second in the league standings. Odd was hungry for revenge on Sunday, but Molde prevailed.
‘Fantastic season’
Coach Tor Ole Skullerud could also boast winning both the league championship and the cup in his first season as Molde’s boss. He took over for football star and budding coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær when Solskjær got a chance to coach, albeit unsuccessfully, Cardiff last winter.
There was nothing unsuccessful about Skullerud on Sunday, as he ran back and forth before cheering fans at the sold-out stadium. “I can’t manage to describe the feeling,” the jubilant coach told state broadcaster NRK, which aired the match live in nationwide television. “It’s been a fantastic season and we crowned it with the cup.”
King and prime minister cheered, too
Fredrik Gulbrandsen, Molde’s 22-year-old player from Lillestrøm, was the star of the match after scoring the team’s first goal against Odd. Teammate Mohamed Elyounoussi scored the second, allowing Molde to defend their cup for the first time since Lillestrøm managed the same back in 1978.
The last time a football club won both the league championship and the cup was in 2003, when Rosenborg claimed the rare “double” in Norwegian football. Molde celebrated in front of both King Harald and Prime Minister Erna Solberg in the match that officially ended the 2014 season.
newsinenglish.no/Nina Berglund
