A clash of major importance at both ends of the Swedish Allsvenskan table will take place at the Tele2 Arena on Sunday, as Djurgardens IF welcome IFK Goteborg.
The hosts moved within four points of league leaders Malmo with a victory last weekend before completing their Europa Conference League second-qualifying-round tie on Thursday, while their visitors find themselves a single point above the relegation zone following a defeat last time out.
Djurgardens IF return to Allsvenskan action at the weekend aiming to narrow the gap to top spot, having enjoyed a fine start to their latest title pursuit and bounced back to mover closer to the leaders last time out.
Following a fourth-placed finish last time around, the Jarnkaminerna headed into the mid-season break in second spot on 25 points from 12 outings on the back of a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Hammarby, but they returned in style in July, moving closer to defending champions Malmo with consecutive victories over Norrkoping and Varnamo.
Kim Bergstrand and Thomas Lagerlof‘s side would then suffer another setback in a 2-1 loss away at relegation-threatened Kalmar, but they again bounced back last weekend, making a swift return to winning ways by beating Elfsborg 2-1 on their travels thanks to Patric Aslund‘s opener and Besard Sabovic‘s 77th-minute winner.
The Jarnkaminerna then most recently visited Luxembourgish outfit Progres Niederkorn for the second leg of their Europa Conference League second-round qualifying tie on Thursday, and after picking up a 3-0 victory on home turf, they saw out the aggregate triumph in a 1-0 defeat on the night as Hamadou Karamoko netted the only goal in the third minute, with Bergstrand and Lagerlof’s men standing strong to stay ahead after Jacob Une Larsson was sent off in the first half.
Now turning their focus back to the domestic campaign having moved four points behind Malmo in their search for a first Allsvenskan title since 2019, Djurgarden will bid to make it back-to-back league wins to ramp up the pressure on Sunday.
Their visitors arrive desperate for a victory of their own in the fight at the other end of the division, having been dragged within a single point of the bottom three once again last weekend.
Having fought around the bottom three of the Allsvenskan table for the entirety of the campaign thus far, IFK Goteborg returned from the mid-season break on 14 points from 12 outings, and after suffering a disappointing away defeat to fellow strugglers Varnamo, they did build a slight lead with a 1-0 triumph away at Hammarby in mid-July thanks to Paulos Abraham‘s first-half goal.
A home meeting with basement side Vasteras SK then followed, and they looked set to pick up another one-goal victory through Abraham, only to be pegged back deep into injury time by an Abdelrahman Boudah leveller and forced to share the points.
Aiming to bounce back from that disappointment and climb the table, Stefan Billborn‘s side most recently hosted Brommapojkarna last Saturday and fell short in an eventful contest, initially leading through Gustav Svensson only to fall to an eventual 4-3 defeat despite Arbnor Mucolli and Kolbeinn Thordarson reducing the deficit to a single goal on two occasions with the latter coming too late to spark a turnaround.
Having now seen their lead over Norrkoping in the relegation playoff place cut to a single point and their lead over the automatic drop zone reduced to two, Goteborg will be keen to make a return to winning ways on Sunday in a bid to move clear of the threat of relegation in the coming weeks.
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