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Molde thrashes Cercle Brugge in a Norwegian-dominated match
Molde secured a commanding victory over Cercle Brugge in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round match, played on Thursday at Aker Stadion in Molde. The Norwegians dominated the encounter from the outset, displaying a dynamic and effective game that allowed them to open the scoring quickly.
In the 3rd minute, Kristian Eriksen put Molde ahead after a fine assist from Magnus Kaasa. Molde’s dominance continued, and in the 18th minute, Martin Eikrem doubled the lead with a fantastic goal following a pass from Magnus Daehli. Molde sealed the match in the 30th minute with a goal from Martin Linnes, who capitalized on a pass from Kristian Eriksen.
Despite the changes Cercle Brugge made in the second half, Molde maintained control of the game. The only real opportunity for the Belgian side came in the 86th minute when Erik Breivik missed a penalty for Molde, but the Norwegian team remained unaffected by this miss and held onto their lead until the final whistle.
The final score was 3-0 in favor of Molde, who are in a privileged position for the second leg in Belgium.
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Substitutions cercle brugge: at minute 46 C. Ravych came in and B. Popovic went out., at minute 46 K. Olaigbe came in and Felipe Augusto went out., at minute 63 A. Minda came in and A. K. Ouattara went out., at minute 63 H. van der Bruggen came in and L. Agyekum went out., at minute 80 Bruninho came in and J. Daland went out.
Substitutions molde: at minute 77 F. Ihler came in and M. Eikrem went out., at minute 77 H. Stenevik came in and M. Linnes went out., at minute 86 E. Haugan came in and V. Lund went out., at minute 86 E. Hestad came in and M. Kaasa went out.
The teams lined up as follows:
Molde
Titulares:
Cercle Brugge
Titulares:
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