Gamweek 17 in the Swedish Allsvenskan season will see IF Brommapojkarna and Halmstads BK face off in a mid-table battle at Grimsta IP in Stockholm on Saturday evening.
Both these teams, along with Sirius, managed to earn 21 points over the first half of the season, with the hosts currently in ninth place, one above the visitors owing to a marginally better goal difference.
Match preview
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After managing to survive their first season back in the top flight by the slenderest of margins last term, Brommapojkarna will likely be fairly content with their performance over the first half of the 2024 campaign.
The Bromma Boys have racked up five wins, six draws and five losses to date, leaving them five points clear of the drop, and a win here will likely see them break into the top half of the league table.
Olof Mellberg's side will enter this match off the back of a remarkable 4-3 victory over IFK Goteborg last weekend, and have now split their last four games two wins and two losses since the league resumed after the international break.
However, both those victories came in away matches, while the side have only won once in seven home games this season, and their six-point tally at Grimsta IP is currently the second-worst in the division.
Still, the hosts will be confident of securing a favourable result here, having taken six points of this opponent in the league last season, including beating them 3-1 at this venue back in August last year.
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Meanwhile, like their opponents, Halmstad will also consider the first half of this season as a significant step in the right direction after spending the majority of last term flirting with the drop.
HBK's 21 points have come by way of seven wins this season, and they are the only team in the top flight that have not drawn a match to date, with their remaining nine matches all ending in defeat.
Magnus Haglund's side returned from the international break with three consecutive defeats to Malmo, AIK and Norrkoping last month, but managed to bring an end to that run with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Varnamo last weekend.
They will now look to carry that momentum with them on the road, where they are currently on a five-match losing streak dating back to the start of May, and failed to score in three of those games while conceding 15.
Halmstad's hopes of pulling further away from the bottom three will likely rely on their ability to find greater attacking output over the second half of the season, as their 20-goal tally to date is the fourth-worst return in the top flight this term.
Team News
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Liam Tahwildaran has not featured in a single match for Brommapojkarna this season due to a cruciate ligament tear and he is likely to miss the majority of the remainder of the campaign as well.
Lucas Hagg-Johansson has now missed nine league games owing to injury which means Fabian Mrozek will continue between the sticks. Gustav Sandberg Magnusson is also ruled out for this weekend's clash with an injury to his knee.
Halmstad will have to make do without the services of Jonathan Svedberg for this encounter after the midfielder crossed the yellow card threshold in the win against Varnamo last weekend.
Naeem Mohammed sustained a cruciate ligament tear in May and has now been ruled out for the rest of the season and potentially the first few months of the next campaign as well.
Brommapojkarna possible starting lineup:
Mrozek; Jensen, Abrahamsson, Bjorkander, Christensen; Calisir, Fritzson; Jakobsen, Odefalk, Andersson; Vasic
Halmstads BK possible starting lineup:
Erlandsson; Boman, Wallentin, Baffo, Olsson; Eyjolfsson, Maenpaa, Allansson, Nogueira; Granath, Ingason
We say: Brommapojkarna 2-1 Halmstads BK
While Brommapojkarna's home record has been very poor this season, they have shown significant improvement in recent weeks, beating Norrkoping 2-1 and holding Malmo to a 2-2 draw in their last three matches at the venue. We feel they will be able to edge the visitors to the points in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
