Neestrup all praise as Lions beat BIF

Jacob Neestrup says beating Brøndby 3-1 in Sunday's derby crowned off a "really hard month" for F.C. Copenhagen as Danish domestic football pauses for the international break.

Gabriel Pereira scored after just four minutes inside a sold-out Parken, before Kevin Diks converted a 17th-minute penalty following a foul on Giorgi Gocholeishvili.

FCK went down to 10 men before the break as Marcos Lopez saw a yellow card for a foul upgraded to a red after a VAR review.

Mathias Kvistgaarden pulled one back for the visitors after the hour mark, but Mohamed Elyounoussi then popped up with a stunning counter-attacking goal to seal the three points.

The wins came just three days after FCK drew 1-1 at Kilmarnock to seal safe passage to the UEFA Conference League group stage.

Discussing the game, Neestrup said: "You cannot underestimate the importance of this victory and this performance.

"We knew it was important to get off to a good start because we played in Scotland two-and-a-half days ago and I think we came out really well and set ourselves up for the game.

"We've also done that in other games, where we just didn't get the first goal, but we got that today, and we controlled the game and were the best team on the pitch for the first 25 minutes.

"We had changed our pressure by moving Mattsson a bit further up the pitch to tease them in their build-up play and push them into making some mistakes. Giorgi ate up some important ground when ran forward and forced the penalty to make it 2-0.

"The game started to change pattern a bit with Brøndby having more of the ball, and of course it didn't get any easier after we got the red card. I think it was harshly judged, but otherwise I don't want to say more about it.

"For the first quarter after the break, we were under a lot of pressure, but after Delaney came on, he and Lukas got hold of things in central midfield and then the goal to make it 3-1 was just a piece of high, high individual class."

The win means FCK head into the winter break having achieved progress to another European group stage and sit within three points of top spot in the Danish Superliga, with just one defeat in all competitions.

"Both the victory and the performance today make me very happy on behalf of the players, because yes, there have been bad matches and bad performances along the way," said Neestrup.

"It has been a really hard month for all of us at F.C. Copenhagen. But now we go on international break with an average of two points per game in the Superliga, and we have once again lived up to our responsibility in Europe by qualifying for a group stage."