Randers increase crisis at winless champions with hard-fought win over rivals

[p]Five matches into the new Superliga season, the defending Danish champions from AGF remain winless. On Sunday, they were on the losing side as their rivals, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/randers-fc/x0NnnfrU/"]Randers FC[/a], beat the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/aarhus/OOXnKGbO/"]Aarhus[/a] side 2–1 on their home turf in Kronjylland.[/p][p]This marked the second win of the season for Randers, while AGF sit on three points after their first five league games.[/p][p]AGF started Sunday's match against Randers in control, but it was largely a matter of keeping possession without creating any real danger. Randers rarely ventured into AGF's half, but one of the few times they did, things went wrong for the visitors.[/p][p]A cross from Randers standout Elies Mahmoud sailed all the way across the penalty area before finding the back of the net. And after just under half an hour, the home side displayed their efficiency again. [/p][p]Kasper Junker brought down a long delivery, and his teammate [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/themsen-mike/Egqxxzfi/"]Mike Themsen[/a] was the first to reach the layoff. Despite facing heavy pressure, Themsen stayed on his feet and forced the ball past AGF goalkeeper [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/christiansen-mads/nivvODPI/"]Mads Hedenstad[/a], who had rushed out to meet him.[/p][image alt="Randers - AGF - Player Ratings" id="55af1a56-e708-4dfb-aa3d-a5cc07b5719b" credit-line="Flashare" guid="193b2351-2a07-49d3-a982-da8928b05987" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /][p]AGF’s attack still lacked any real spark, and it was difficult to see how they would manage to get back into the match on their own. Consequently, they needed quite a bit of help from the hosts before that could happen. About 20 minutes into the second half, Randers goalkeeper Paul Izzo completely misjudged a long ball.[/p][p]AGF's Sebastian Jorgensen was able to easily square the ball to teammate Janni Serra, who scored into an empty net to narrow the deficit.[/p][p]In the 78th minute, Randers offered another helping hand when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/henriksson-axel/0dna61IF/"]Axel Henriksson[/a] was sent off in his debut. [/p][p]The 24-year-old Swede—unveiled on Friday after joining from Blackburn—made contact with the ball first, but his foot followed through onto Kristian Arnstad's leg. After a brief VAR check, referee Sandi Putros changed his initial decision from a yellow card to a red.[/p][p]However, the hosts' generosity did not help the visitors. The story remained the same as the match neared its conclusion; the Aarhus side swarmed around the Randers penalty area, but clear-cut chances for an equalizer failed to materialize.[/p]