Danish First Division (2nd tier)
CASA Arena, Horsens
Admission: 120 DKK
Attendance: 2316
Match Rating: 4
For the second game of my weekend in Denmark, I took the 45 minute train ride south from Aarhus to the small town of Horsens, located on the eastern coast of Jutland for this first division (2nd tier of Danish football). The CASA Arena has recently been fully refurbished and is now an impressive area with a capacity of over 10,000. The stadium has a couple of very interesting features, with an interesting and slightly unusual design. The stadium is fully enclosed, with the lower roofs at each end of the stadium joined to the higher grandstands running along the touchlines with a wave type design. The design of the floodlights is also very unusual, and one end of the stadium is designed so that, where capacity of up to 30,000 is required for events such as pop concerts, the stand can be dismantled and the parts can be reassembled to extend the lengths of both sides of the pitch.
As for the game, it promised to be an entertaining affair, with the home team, AC Horsens, top of the table having been relegated from the Superliga the previous season against FC Vestsjælland, newly promoted into this division and were sitting in fourth place in the table. Indeed, the opening exchanges were even, with both sides looking dangerous in attack. However, a couple of minutes turned the game Horsens way, taking the lead on 20 minutes, and then just a minute later, were awarded a penalty which was emphatically hit home to suddenly give the home side a comfortable advantage. For the rest of the half, Horsens completely dominated and really should have scored more than the further one goal they scored on the stroke of half time to go into the break with a 3-0 advantage. Predictably, the second half was a relative damp squib as Horsens eased off, although to Vestsjælland's credit, they kept battling and had a few chances to reduce the arrears. 6 minutes from time, Horsens scored their fourth to ensure a very comfortable, if slightly flattering scoreline.
Similar to the game at Silkeborg yesterday, the fans generated a passionate but always friendly and good spirited atmosphere. The football played was also of good quality, played at a high tempo with a fair amount of skill. Therefore, Denmark certainly comes recommended as a weekend destination, although whilst it can be cheap to get there by flying with a budget airline such Ryanair, as with all Scandinavian countries, be prepared for everything being expensive out there - happily with the exception of the football!
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