The derby decided it
Malmö FF Dam beat FC Rosengård 1–0 at Eleda Stadion in front of 8,003, Larkin Russell scoring her first goal in an MFF shirt (1). It was fourth straight derby win over Rosengård. The same week, Malmö FF Dam beat St. Pölten 3–0 to go through 5–0 on aggregate and reach the main round of the Women's Europa Cup for the first time (6) (34). Two results, one message: the women's side is the part of this club actually going somewhere.
The derby was scrappy. Tuva Skoog said as much: "we mix and give a little, we get it high on them sometimes, but I don't think we really find the last runs into the box, or the passes in behind" (1). Mia Persson was less bothered: "1–0 is the sweetest kind of win" (3). Both are right. Winning while playing badly in October is how you finish third, and third means Europe (4).
The injury cloud over D'Aquila
The win cost something. Izzy D'Aquila went off and Hanna Marklund's reaction on SVT was blunt: "Aj, aj, aj" (2). Nothing is confirmed yet, but D'Aquila is the player this team is built around. She scored in the St. Pölten tie (6). Lose her for a month and the run-in looks different.
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The herrlag is a seventh-place team until it isn't
The men beat FC Nordsjälland 3–0 in a training match, Mayckel Lahdo scoring his first MFF goal, Andreas Christiansen back in the team after coming on with roughly a quarter of an hour left (8) (12) (21). Gaute Helstrup called it "a very useful training match for us" (12) (17). Sixteen-year-old Leon da Silva got half an hour (24) (25).
Fine. But the league table does not care about friendlies. Malmö sit seventh on 33 points from 22 games, +4, with a last five of L W D W L, and a 0–2 defeat at Västerås SK on September 19 is the most recent competitive thing anyone has seen. Pontus Jansson is talking about the 2027 title and calling the level in "many teams" embarrassingly poor (11) (13). He is not wrong about the league. He is also in seventh.
What to watch
Kalmar FF at home on Monday, October 12, then BK Häcken at Eleda on October 18. Two home games against mid-table opposition, and the last real chance to show the Nordsjälland performance translates. D'Aquila's scan is the other thing. Watch that, not the friendly scoreline.
