After the events of last weekend I was more than happy to get back to photographing football. This Easter weekend’s double header offered both a little bit of snow and smoke. On Sunday I was covering Djurgårdens IF against IF Elfsborg and then covering the first derby of the year with AIK meeting Hammarby IF on Monday.
Djurgården was very impressive this weekend. I placed myself with Elfsborg attacking towards me in the first half. Thinking the visiting side would be the first to score. I was wrong and Djurgården took the lead just after two minutes. They immediately doubled their lead on a header from Kerim Mrabati and could have had a third when Jonas Olsson’s diving header was saved. The third goal finally came at the start of the second half from Magnus Eriksson, and this time I was positioned on the right side and got some great shoots.
Djurgården was very impressive in this game. They controlled the game from start to finish and their attack was very impressive. Fluid and able to create a lot of dangerous opportunities. It’s too early to tell, but if this is what’s to come from Özcan Melkemichel side then they could be one of the surprise teams of the season.
Day 2: AIK – Hammarby IF
Stockholm’s first derby of the season delivered a great match. I went in expecting AIK to come out on top. I placed myself on AIK’s attacking side for both halves of the match. In the first half it played out really well. I was well placed to photograph Nils-Eric Johansson celebration after he scored the opener. Hammarby would go on to equalize through Arnor Smarason, but to me it still looked like AIK could come out on top.
For the second half I moved across the field to the other short side. It did not pan out well when Pa Amat Dibba scored the match winner. Even without any goals on my side I was able to photograph some pretty nice reactions from an increasingly frustrated Henok Goitom.
So that was the derby. In comparison to Sunday’s match there was a little more smoke and the same weather that ranged from sunny, to cloudy, to snowy. It was a fun game and it ended the way all derbies should end, with an outright winner. Half the city leaves super happy and festive and the other half leaves miserable and angry.