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Kalmar needs points for Europe

Norrkoping basically have no real ambitions in the end of the season and the win would allow the away team to go to Europe

For the entire season, Norrkoping kept a reputation of a team who greatly vary in performance and in this final moments of the championship it cannot be said otherwise. After a series of bad results, four losses in five matches, they had decisive wins in the last two rounds.

The reason for that can definitely be found in the departure of the best forward duo Thorvaldsson and Khalili who were difficult to substitute both at the same time, but the things slowly settled in their place. Nyman and Thelin have  entirely taken on the roles of primary forwards in the previous matches which they confirmed with goals and good performance.

The only problem for Noorkoping today is that they lack proper motivation considering they cannot advance much on the table, but they also cannot fall back so the points don't mean that much to them and it is all more or less about prestige.

 - The last two wins definitely give us confidence. Our goal is to end in the upper half of the table and of course we will try to win against Kalmar. But we are focused more on the way we will play in order to win and not only on the need to win - pointed out the coach Janne Andersson.

The offensive player Citaku will probably substitute for injured Kujovic and the other absent players are Lawan and Frempong, a duo who have problems with injuries for a while. The injury of the first goalkeeper Nilsson is quite unpleasant so the goal will be taken over by the experienced Lindberg who was good in the last round as well.

Kalmar prepared one of the biggest surprises this season in the championship. They had constant problems with injuries of standard players but the young players, who were basically juniors up until recently, have made it to the first team which they don't abandon even now when the situation with absences is much better.

In the last six rounds they are undefeated and have two consecutive wins. The one in the last round was especially important for them when at home they defeated the powerful Goteborg, a title contender, which certainly gave them additional vigor for the end of the championship.

With the series of excellent results lately, Kalmar even have a chance to fight for the spot in Europa League and the motivation is on high level because of the youth in the team who so far didn't have the chance to play in big European competitions.

Concerning absences, the suspension of the very important midfielder Hallberg needs to be mentioned and it should not be forgotten that the top scorer Soderquist is unavailable as well because of an injury, same as the last round, which could surely disrupt the offensive capabilities of the away team.

Motivation will be the key in today's match and the advantage on that account is definitely on the away team's side as they have the opportunity to play in the Europa League next year. Kalmar are in a great form right now. They haven't lost once in the last six rounds and, alongside the current leader Malmo, they are the team with the least losses this season. They were beaten only five times, and they conceded only two goals in their seven away matches so far. Although two important midfielders are out for them today, they have lots of players capable for replacing them. Both of the injured players are the youngsters that took their chance when some of the standard first-team players got injured. Now, we have an opposite situation. The youngsters are injured and the senior players will look to earn their spot in the starting lineup for the next rounds. Absences really shouldn't be that much of a problem for them and they have shown exactly that with the victory against very strong Goteborg in the last round. Norrkoping have really no reason to fight here. They are positioned firmly in the middle of the table, away from the danger zone and even more away from the spots that guarantee them participation in the European competitions next year. They lost six home matches this season and very motivated Kalmar will certainly take their chance to win valuable three points. In worst case scenario, they will go back home undefeated...