It was my second ever visit to The Bryne Stadion on Sunday to see if the hosts, Bryne, could keep their place in the Eliterserien after their first season back in the top flight for over two decades has seen them struggle somewhat and end the season third bottom in the division, and in the relegation play off spot, they would be up against Aalesund, who finished fourth in the OBOS-ligean, and had come through two play off games to make this stage and give themselves a chance of promotion and relegating Bryne at the same breath, that first leg of the final to come later, but first, here is how the play off system works, and how it got to this stage and this fixture today.
It's known as Kvalifisering Eliteserien, basically Qualifying for the Eliterserien, the top division in the country, to see who would grab the final place in that league for the 2026 season.
This is how it works:-
The opening game of the play offs (Kamp One, Kamp meaning Game for anyone who wants to know) sees 5th host 6th, on this occasion Egersund Vs Ranheim, the winner of that then travel to 4th place and winner of that travel to third, before the winners of that play Bryne, the side who finished third bottom in the Eliteserien, over two legs, let's see how those games went setting up the final two play offs games (Kamp 4 & 5).
Kamp One - Egersund 3 Ranheim 2
This game had a very dramatic conclusion, Mikael Johnsen put the visitors ahead six minutes before half time before Mathias Sauer levelled the game up in first half stoppage time, Ranheim then restored their lead through Aki Samuelsen with just over twenty minutes remaining to give them huge hope of getting into the next stage of the playoffs. But, Oscar Kapskarmo levelled in the 84th minute before Scott Vatne's 95th minute winner sent Egersund through to the next stage!!!
Kamp Two - Aalesund 3 Egersund 1 (aet)
That meant Egersund travelled north to face Aalesund, and it looked for a very long time as if the visitors would prevail after Oscar Kapskarmo's 8th minute goal looked enough to send them into the next stage, but, another dramatic ending, this time going against Egersund, saw Kristian Lonebu's 91st minute leveller send the tie into an extra half hour, and further goals for the hosts from Fredrik Heiselberg & David Johannsson saw Aalesund into the next stage after extra time.
Kamp Three - Kongsvinger 4 Aalesund 5 (aet)
That meant Aalesund would now have to travel over to near the capital, Oslo, to take on Kongsvinger, who finished third after missing out on automatic promotion by a point, and if you thought the first two games were dramatic, it had nothing on what was to come in the third game of the playoffs. Henrik Melland gave Aalesund the lead in the 22nd minute only to see the hosts level three minutes later courtesy of Lucas Haren, but the visitors quickly restored their lead three minutes later through Paul Ngongo however, it was 2-2 on the half hour mark after Rasmus Christiansen restored parity for the second time. Aalesund though went in front for a third time eight minutes before the break through a second of the game for Ngongo, and when Leonbu added his second and the visitors fourth soon after half time, they looked in control. But not a bit of it, Kongsvinger reduced the arrears in the 55th minute through Jesper Grundt, and then levelled the tie at 4-4 in the 76th minute through Martin Vinjor meaning this titanic tussle would go to extra time!!! And with eight minutes of extra time remaining Phillip Aukland netted the winner for Aalesund to send them through to the two legged final of these playoffs against a broken hearted home side who saw Lucas Haren sent off late on in the extra half hour, phew!!!
This meant that Aalesund would now come up again Bryne, the side who ended their first Eliteserien season in over two decades after winning promotion last season third bottom and in that relegation play off spot as said earlier, Kamp Four of the play off rounds would take place firstly at Bryne, with the final game (Kamp Five) taking place in Aalesund, with the aggregate winners over the two games taking their place in the Eliteserien for 2026.
Anyway, now for the game I mentioned at the start of this blog and the one I am blogging on at The Bryne Stadion, at this stage the latest instalment in this play off series, who would grab the advantage going into the second leg next week, let's see:-
Bryne Vs Aalesund (Kamp Four, Bryne Stadion, Sunday December 7th)
It's fair to say the hosts first season back in the top flight for over twenty years had not gone as well as they hoped, but even their most ardent fan probably expected them to be in a relegation battle this season, and so it proved, although they did end quite a way above the bottom two as you can see below:-
As you can see, they finished way above Stromsgodset but they just could not pull themselves out of 14th and clear the sides above them, and had third bottom & that relegation play off spot confirmed in the penultimate weekend of the season, they did though end their regular season with a 4-1 win at Haugesund who had a season to forget to put it mildly!!!
This will give them some confidence heading into this game then against an Aalesund side who have been the proverbial yoyo club over past seasons, unable to stay in the Eliteserien but seemingly find the OBOS-ligean an easier division for them to bounce back, could they do the same here again, or would Bryne manage to hold onto that final place at the top table and not relinquish something they had worked so hard to achieve with promotion last season after over two decades away from the top flight. Aalesund had certainly had a rather stressful and dramatic route to this game, maybe they thought that promotion was in the stars, who knows, despite only missing out on automatic promotion by three points themselves.
This was just the first leg of this final tie in the play off series, but a win for either side would certainly give themselves an advantage going into the second leg on Thursday further north at the Color Line Arena, so today was really about who could get themselves into a favourable position heading into Kamp Five.
The opening ten minutes saw the hosts try and dominate the ball, they couldn't create anything of note though and on twelve minutes were caught by a sucker punch of a counter attack from the visitors, Kristian Lonebu fired a shot from close range across goal and although this saved by the hosts keeper, the ball went across goal and fell invitingly to Mathias Christensen who had the simple task of side footing into the empty net and stun the home crowd.
An early set back then for the home side, and it was to get even worse for the home side in the 26th minute who were once again caught on the counter by the visitors who looked like they could score every time they broke away, this time is was a lovely finish from the edge of the box from Christensen, a total opposite to the first goal he scored, and his second was a lovely curling side footed finish giving the keeper no chance, and now that early set back for the hosts was becoming a much bigger issue.
Bryne really needed the next goal, but it was increasingly looking likelier that the visitors would pierce a brittle home defence, and with around ten minutes of the half to go Lonebu attempted to go by a defender in the box and went to ground under a challenge, the referee pointed for a corner, but after a lengthy VAR review was sent to the screen and to no ones surprise (after the replay had been shown on the big screen) the penalty was awarded.
Everyone in the home stands prayed for a save or a miss, but Paul Ngongo made no mistake from the spot, firing home the penalty and putting Aalesund into dreamland, three goals up before half time, very unexpected and they were already in my mind, and probably in other peoples too, that they had one foot in the Eliterserien for next season.
Could it get any worse for the hosts, well, it did, three minutes before half time, a cross into the box saw Henrik Melland rise totally unchallenged to send a deft header into the corner of the net, and hand the visitors a scarcely believable four goal lead the the first half of this play off final first leg, the hosts and the home crowd were shell shocked, and their grasp on their Eliteserien spot was slipping and slipping away with every passing moment.
Boos and whistles greeted the half time whistle, unsurprisingly, and Aalesund's evening could not be going any better than it was, they had been ruthless with the chances they had created, they certainly had not outplayed the hosts but were just clinical when it mattered, and the home sides defending was not the best, and to be honest they were not brilliant going forward either, not a good recipe.
How on earth were Bryne going to get back into this contest and indeed the tie as a whole, well a goal or two would help for starters, but it was the visitors who could easily have added more in the early exchanges but they cutting edge was lacking in this half, thankfully for Bryne, but although the hosts certainly improved after the break I cannot remember the visiting keeper making a save of any note in the entire game, let alone the second period.
Aalesund were managing the game well too, and kept the hosts at arms length, if Bryne could have grabbed a couple back in the second half it may have given them a glimmer of hope for Thursday's second leg, but they never looked like scoring and the damage had been done in the first period, and Aalesund saw out the game to record a superb victory.
It means only a miracle now will prevent Aalesund from taking their place in the Eliterserien once again for 2026, and see the comebacks of all comebacks from Bryne from preventing them from dropping back down to the OBOS-ligean after just one season back in the top flight, and if truth be told, it's hard to see how that will happen, well done to Aalesund though, that was some clinical first half display and a good nights work in South West Norway.
Full time Bryne 0 Aalesund 4
