After spending much of the day at the royal palace photographing the opening of an exhibition of royal wedding dresses I made my way to Tele2 Arena to photograph the final football derby of the season.
This is a game that did not disappoint. Hammarby went down two goals to Djurgården and then proceeded to stage an amazing comeback which resulted in them winning the match 4-2. The personification of the derby match. Amazing tifo in the stands. A fiercely heated and competitive match. Half of the city in complete elation and half of the city miserably gutted.
Djurgården badly needed a win in this game to break their derby curse. They have not won a single derby match since moving to Tele2 Arena. They took the lead through Kevin Walker and then doubled it with a header form Mattias Renegie.
After that Hammarby began to take over. At the 34th minute Romoulo shortened Djurgårdens lead. Six minutes later Arnor Smarason made it 2-2. Just ten minutes into the second half Romulo scored his second and brought Hammarby into the lead. Twenty minutes later Romulo scored his third and securing his hat trick and bringing the scoreline to 4-2.
Immediately after that things got crazy. Djurgården fans erupted and stormed off the stands trying to storm the pitch. The match was interrupted until things calmed down, they then played the remainder of the game. I don’t really know how I feel about that. Part of thinks that the referee should have abandoned the game. There was a net which prevented the fans from reaching the field, but it’s a thin net that separates what happened and the catastrophe that could have been. It is also happening on the back of previous incidents at the Djurgården – AIK derby where photographers were hit with objects from the stands.
The balance between punishing people responsible and punishing the many for the actions of few is hard to find. At the same time that I feel many the game should have been abandoned perhaps that’s what the disrupters wanted and not giving it to them is the better course of action.
