Round nine of the 2024 Norwegian Eliteserien campaign sees Tromso IL and Rosenborg face off against each other at the Romssa Arena on Monday evening.
Both teams head into this one off the back of respective defeats last time out and will be looking to get back on track with a positive result here.
Match preview
Rosenborg were beaten for the fourth time in five matches across all competitions in a 3-1 defeat to newly-promoted KFUM Oslo at Lerkendal Stadion on Thursday.
Alfred Johansson's men broke the deadlock thanks to Momodou Njie's own goal but were pegged back by Robin Rasch seven minutes shy of half time before second-half strikes from Petter Dahl and Johannes-Hummelvoll-Nunez turned the game around.
As a result, Troillongan have dropped down to seventh place in the Norwegian Eliteserien table and are already seven points adrift of a place in the top four.
Coming up next is the task of facing off against an opposing outfit with little to choose between the teams over the last seven meetings, which have yielded three wins apiece and one stalemate.
Having failed to score in two of their last three away involvements, Monday's visitors have work to do at the top end of the pitch if they are to win on the road for the first time in just under a month.
Tromso fell to a comprehensive 4-0 defeat against defending champions Bodo/Glimt in Thursday afternoon's encounter at the Aspmyra Stadion.
Gard Holme's men went into the break trailing 2-0 courtesy of Albert Gronbaek's double after which Kasper Hogh and Jens Hauge struck in the second period to put the result beyond doubt.
Picking up just three points from seven outings so far, Gutan sit bottom of the league standings, four points adrift of safety, albeit with two games in hand on 13th-placed Hamkam.
Off the back of recently ending a four-game losing streak in front of their fans, Monday's hosts now set out to record consecutive home wins for the first time since February.
Team News
Miika Koskela is still sidelined for Tromso due to a knee injury he picked up while on international duty with the Finland Under-21s.
Twenty-six-year-old Vegard Erlien has been directly involved in five of the hosts' seven goals so far, making him one to keep an eye on here.
Defender Jonathan Augustinsson continues his lengthy spell out of action through a knee problem and will not feature for Rosenborg in this one.
The away side will also have to make do with the absence of Noah Holm, who remains without an appearance since the turn of the year.
Tromso IL possible starting lineup:
Haugaard; Skjervik, Psyche, Jenssen; Norheim, Antonsen, Jenssen, Hjerto-Dahl, Robertsen; Nordas, Erlien
Rosenborg possible starting lineup:
Tangvik; Reitan, Henriksen, Jenssen, Pereira; Tagseth, Selnaes, Nypan; Broholm, Saeter, Reitan-Sunde
We say: Tromso IL 2-1 Rosenborg
The teams have been poor at the back of late, and we expect both of them to be breached in this one. That said, we just about fancy the home side to emerge victorious, albeit by only a narrow margin.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
