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Molde can still make it to third place

Sandes has shown by defeating Sarpsborg that they have forgotten the catastrophic defeat form Start and the coach thinks the'll stay in the league

Although it did not seem that way, especially in the beginning of the match when Aalesund had two great plays in the first 25 minutes, Molde have defeated Aalesund in the regional derby (1-3) for their second win in a row. This is greatly due to defender of the home team, Phillips, who was sent off in the second part, but this does not belittle the victory of the reigning champion

.- It was about time we won. I knew the players were ready, I'we seen it in the locker room. They were motivated by criticism on their behalf. They liked that we started to attack right after Aalesund scored - Molde's coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was happy

With this victory, Molde have revived the chance to win third place and to perform in the Euro League. After a disappointing start of the season and mixed results in Europe, the champion hopes that they concentrate on the remaining seven game weeks. The team was reinforced in the summer transfer window. They got their confidence back after two impressive victories and I would not be surprised if Molde ended up in third place in November.

Solskjaer hasn't got Pettersen, Gulbrandsen and Stenslid on his disposal for the match against Sandnes, three players who have been out for a while, and the attacker Hoiland who joined them this summer from the ranks of the opponent. The attacker Gatt is coming back after some time.

After a terrible loss against Start (0-7), Sandnes have pleasantly surprised us in a very important match against Sarpsborg (2-0). Asle Andersen's players did not play the game for the books, but these three points against a direct competitor in the relegation battle could prove to be a major result.

- I don't care about making an impression today. It's great to win even when we have such a bad day. Until now, all our victories were achieved when we were at the top pf our game. We were far from it today, but we took three points with a 2-0 victory - the coach of Sandnes was happy after the match

Andersen is, despite the disaster with Start, happy with the shape of the team and believes the relegation battle will turn out in their favor. 

- Things did not look so good at one point, but six victories in nine games has put us in a good position. The end is near and we still need a couple of wins to get the 35 points so we are counting our points and we're not looking where we are on the league table.

Along with the injured defender Andersen, the away team will be playing without the suspend Helle, otherwise a standard attacker.  

Molde have signed some new players during the summer but they have also sold some important players such as their top goalscorer Agnan and centre-back Forren. But, departure of some important players is still not good enough excuse for poor performances they had this season. The defending champion was expected to win another title this season, but they won only two points in the first seven rounds. Such a bad start changed their expectations - now their main goal is to finish as high as they can on the table and to try to win the national cup. Despite losing some matches while they were playing in the Europa League preliminary rounds, they did start to improve after the bad results in the first rounds of the season. Since the end of May Molde have won seven out of 12 matches they played and they are currently holding 7th position on the league table. They signed some new players and the centre-back Forren had also returned back to Molde. Their forward Gulbrandsen scored four goals in just a few matches and they gained back their confidence after winning against Valerenga and Aelesund.
Sandnes almost got relegated last season (they earned their right to play in the top division through play-offs) and the same was expected this season, too. Although they are currently in good form, they did lost very convincingly to Start (7-0) and to Brann (6-1) in the last couple of months. They won some points against the teams comparable to their own (Sarsborg, Honefoss) and against teams that were significantly weakened at the time they were facing them (Tromso, Stromsgodset). In the last couple of weeks it is clear that their form is dropping, and I don't think they can cause any real troubles for Molde today.