Malmo head coach Henrik Rydstrom lauded Anders Christiansen after the fit-again captain fired a double in a 4-0 win over Hacken that extends their unbeaten run to four games before Thursday’s Europa League opener at home to Rangers.
The 34-year-old midfielder scored the opening two goals on his return from injury on Sunday before being withdrawn after 56 minutes as Malmo extended their lead at the top of the Swedish Allsvenskan to 11 points.
“Anders is brilliant in the decisive moments,” Rydstrom told the reigning champions’ club website. “He scores in situations where others don’t.”
It took Christiansen only six minutes to make an impact, finding the bottom corner from long range before thumping high into the top corner from 15 yards shortly after the break.
Isaac Kiese Thelin headed the third after 80 minutes, with fellow striker Erik Botheim clipping in another three minutes later after coming on as a substitute.
Rydstrom played down their second consecutive home 4-0 win, insisting there were “small margins”, that his side were too cautious in the first half and stressed: “It’s not that we smashed Hacken, but we were better at the decisive times.
“It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of all the players. We’ve scored a lot of goals even if our strikers haven’t, but it was extremely nice that they both found the net.”
Rydstrom had made six changes to his side after the midweek 0-0 draw with GAIS in Gothenburg, with Johan Dahlin also returning to the starting line-up despite the coach having praised Ricardo Friedrich while the first-choice goalkeeper was being rested.
Sweden striker Thelin had also returned from injury, while former Manchester City youth centre-back Colin Rosler, Peru international Sergio Pena and fellow midfielder Hugo Bolin also came into the side.
New Norway cap Botheim, Otto Rosengren, the midfielder who recently debuted for Sweden, 19-year-old centre-back Nils Zatterstrom and Taha Aliy dropped to the bench, with another winger, Soren Rieks, missing out.
Malmo remain unbeaten since losing 2-0 home and away to Sparta Prague in their Champions League play-off and consolidated their place at the top of their domestic table after Djurgardens lost 3-0 away to GAIS.