Neestrup: An important win to kick-start the Superliga

Jacob Neestrup praised his players for delivering an "important victory" to kick off the Danish Superliga's return with a 3-0 win at Silkeborg on Sunday.

Magnus Mattsson, Viktor Claesson and Mohamed Elyounoussi got the goals for the Lions to bounce back from the defat to Manchester City in midweek.

FC Midtjylland's loss to Brøndby on the same day means FCK move to second in the table, a point behind BIF.

Discussing the game, Neestrup said: "It ended with a secure victory and a clean sheet after a great amount of effort, where we were very concentrated and disciplined.

"First of all, I think it was a strong collective effort that gave us the perfect start to the spring against a team that we have had problems with several times earlier in the season.

'I know they also had a few chances today, but if we had played as solidly in the games against AGF and Viborg at the end of the autumn, we would also have got the six points we needed  from those games too.

"Those games and our experience with Silkeborg played a role in the way we went into the match today, where we played with a little more confidence in roughly the same formation as we beat them with last time here in the cup. In this way, we quickly gained the initiative in the match.

"In the first half, it was perhaps a bit slow as we played around their half a bit too much, but after the break we got better at catching them when they were off balance. We could have made better use of that before the break, but we succeeded in the second half.

"So all in all it went as we hoped. We took advantage of the fact that we already had a game in our legs from last Tuesday. Of course, there are still things we can improve, but this was an important victory against a well-organised team against whom, as I said, we have had bigger problems before."

Next up for FCK is a return to Parken and a clash with FC Nordsjælland on Monday 19 February.