Aarhus and Sonderjyske raise the curtain on round three of the 2024-25 Danish Superliga season when they face off at Ceres Park on Friday evening.
Both teams have made a slow start to the campaign so far as they head into their meeting still in search of a first victory this term.
Match preview
In keeping with their solid pre-season form, Aarhus took just nine minutes to open the scoring against Midtjylland on matchday one, but they eventually had to make do with a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw.
Uwe Rosler's men were, once again, guilty of failing to hold on to an advantage in their subsequent league outing against Copenhagen, where they went into the break with a 2-1 lead, only to lose 3-2.
Taking on two of last season's top three in consecutive games was always going to represent a tough challenge, and a tally of one point from two outings has left De Hvii'e eighth in the Danish Superliga table.
Aarhus will now seek to kickstart their campaign at the third time of asking before yet another daunting assignment against Brondby next weekend.
Their home form leading up to this one certainly does not make for good reading with just one win picked up from the last six games, leaving Friday's hosts in need of a change in fortune on their own patch.
Despite emerging as champions of the Danish First Division last time out, Sonderjyske started to slow signs of slowing down towards the end having failed to win any of their final three outings.
Thomas Norgaard would have hoped that his side's drop in form was due to the league title being secured already, but an underwhelming pre-season form did little to ease his concerns.
Sonderjyske played out stalemates against Midtjylland, Hobro and Holstein Kiel, before rounding off with a 3-2 defeat against Copenhagen, where they conceded twice in the final two minutes.
The Haderslev-based side kicked off life back amongst the elite with a 1-0 defeat to Silkeborg, and a 1-1 draw against Lyngby in the following game means that Sonderjyske are now without a win in nine straight matches.
While it is still early days in the new season, Friday's visitors will need to get themselves back on track as soon as possible with games against the elite sides firmly on the horizon.
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Team News
Aarhus' Kevin Yacob is still nursing a long-term knee injury which he picked up last year, making the midfielder unavailable for selection.
Danish duo Tobias Molgaard and Nicolai Poulsen are also out of contention here, although the latter is not far off a return to action.
Tobias Bech has found the back of the net in his last two outings and is definitely one to keep an eye on.
Summer arrival Gideon Duru still awaits his official debut for the visitors since joining from Rivers United, and the 24-year-old could finally get his moment in Friday's affair.
Tobias Sommer is expected to retain his place in the Sonderjyske XI having made the most of his first start of the campaign last time out, where he netted the opener.
Aarhus possible starting lineup:
Hansen; Kahl, Tingager, Dalsgaard, Beijmo; Links, Madsen, Brandhof, Anderson; Mortensen, Bech
Sonderjyske possible starting lineup:
Flo; Wilkins, Soulas, Gretarsson, Barkarson; Vinderslev, Sommer; Emini, Gallegos, Ingason; Djantou
We say: Aarhus 2-1 Sonderjyske
Neither team can boast of a clean sheet from their opening two involvements, and we expect that to continue at the end of the 90 minutes on Friday.
We are also backing Aarhus to narrowly edge out Sonderjyske in what should be an entertaining contest with loads of chances at both ends.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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