So yes FCK with the very tough ask of visiting a red hot Man City in the UCL tomorrow. Biggest moment of Satmenic's career to date if he starts at Etihad Stadium.
From Flying Kiwis. New head gaffer for FCK, but he seems happy enough with Stamenic it seems. Looks like the AW will get plenty of playing time anyway with the club captain out for the season.
It’s a very top-heavy Flying Kiwis when we don’t even get to Marko Stamenic until this far down. Because he’s had a pretty eventful time of it this week too, returning from international duty to find that his coach had been sacked. No more Jess Thorup, instead say hej to Jacob Neestrup – who was already the assistant manager to not too much to worry about for Stamenic, compared to if they’d hired an outsider who might have come in and wanted to drop the 20 year old kiwi fella in the midfield.
There was nothing to worry about on that account because Stamenic was on call once more to start in a midfield trio with Zeca and Rasmus Falk at home against AGF.
FCK would hang on to win it 1-0. Three important points as they strive to get their title defence back on track... although the win was blighted by an injury to captain Zeca late on.Zeca tore his ACL last season and his recovery period was part of why Stamenic got such a prominent role in preseason. He may be in for more of the same now because it’s been confirmed by the club that Zeca’s re-injured that same ligament and will need further surgery – ruling him out for the entire season. Rasmus Falk also went off injured in the first half against AGF.
And who should FCK have up next? Manchester City in the Champions League. With no Zeca and no Falk, who wasn’t considered for the travelling squad, Stamenic is all but guaranteed to start and he’ll have Erling Haaland and his mates to deal with. Welcome to the big time, fella.
Huge learning curve playing against the best player and probably team in the world right now. Unfortunately made a couple of costly errors but it's a huge task for anyone in that role.
Can't help but think it's sensationalized, original quote nowhere to be seen.
Mako played pretty much a full match today. Good showing in general, had two of the team's biggest chances and fluffed both from far out but really good learning curve again.
“I don’t comment on my teammates’ performances – this applies especially when I haven’t been in the games,” Grabara told Danish outlet Tipsbladet last week.
“I can only repeat what I have already said – I just have to state that there is a reason why we are in ninth place in the Superliga and that the goals have poured in. It speaks for itself.
“I don’t see any competition for the goalkeeper position. I have every reason to believe that I am the first goalkeeper at FC Copenhagen"
Pretty clear who Gabara is blaming for his team's 9th place.
“For some reason we’ve got a new head coach and for some reason we’ve conceded close to the same number of goals as we did all last season. That’s how it is in football. I’m not going to live in the past, but if I sat on the bench at FCK last season and could look at a goalkeeper who performed the way I did, I had to accept that I wasn’t going to play.
“If a team performs while you are absent, you have to accept that you may have to wait to get the chance again, but I can state that FCK is number nine [on the table].”
He picked up a yellow card on 82 minutes – his second of the competition – for reacting petulantly after being penalised for a foul and will miss next week’s Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund at the Parken Stadium.
From Flying Kiwis. Post last week's 5-0 lesson at Man City.
Marko Stamenic: “The experience we've taken from the team we just played against, arguably the best team in the world, has given us a lot of good things to learn from. I'm young and it's good that I'm experiencing this stuff now, and learning from them quick. Hopefully I can adapt better and build on my game, and help the team in the future – looking first at FC Nordsjælland at the weekend.
I tried my best out there. For the majority of the game you're running hard and trying to get the ball off them, and it's very difficult. In those moments you are tired and you have to stay disciplined – because the moment you do win the ball you have to attack quickly against teams like Manchester City. You learn how to work with these players, how to adapt to games in these scenarios, and hopefully we'll do better next week.”
Copenhagen had some incredible support in the stands at the Etihad Stadium and at times they drowned out the home support despite only having a fraction of the numbers. So you knew they were gonna turn it up for the return fixture. The atmosphere at Parken was nuts – a crowd that included Marko’s family once more... as well as old Ole Academy coach/mentor Declan Edge.Stammers was one of six FCK players in the starting line-up aged 20 or younger. Manchester City blessedly left Erling Haaland on the bench... although Stamenic was up against a midfield trio of Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, and Kevin De Bruyne. No mercy.
If Stamenic looked a tad nervous in the first meeting, here he looked fully comfortable. Knew what he was doing and he did it well – the UEFA website lists him as completing 36/37 passes for a 97% success rate (other sources differ, the definition of a ‘pass’ can be subjective, but they’ve all got him at >90%). That’s big time, especially as passing was one of the things he slipped up with a week earlier. He wasn’t madly ambitious or anything but that’s all good it’s what his position demanded. Be an option. Keep the ball moving. It was an assured performance well beyond his years.
Marko Stamenic: “It was another tough game against one of the best teams in the world. I think we can leave the stadium proud of ourselves and our team. We fought to the very last minute. It means everything to me [to be the first NZer to play men’s UCL for 15 years]. Football is my life and I want to be playing among the best players in the world. I'm so grateful to be able to play against arguably one of the best teams in the world.”
Up Next: Away to Brøndby, and maybe Joe Bell if he gets picked, at 1am on Monday (NZT)
The Mad Hatter, scores himself a FCK jumper, resulting in Marko getting the flu in chilly Copenhagen. Good looking people the Danes.
Marko Stamenic’s family and former coach in attendance to watch him and FC Copenhagen hold Manchester City to a 0-0 draw in the Champions League. How cool. https://t.co/Jy3gzp2PbZ
FCK lose 3-0. Stamenic missed the game as suspended
Defeat means they will finish bottom of the group, and thus won't even have Europa League to look forward to in the new year. That could help them in the league though, given they won't have two games every week. They were a bit unlucky, 3-0 flatters Sevilla and FCK hit the woodwork at least twice. No doubt Stamenic would be kicking himself for picking up that needless yellow last game.