Malmo captain Anders Christiansen has blasted the Swedish football authorities after his side struggled to a 0-0 draw with Halmstad yesterday – claiming he doesn’t know if they want Swedish sides to succeed in Europe ahead of facing Rangers at Ibrox in Tuesday’s Champions League QR3 second leg.
Malmo were in action shortly after Rangers lost 1-0 at Tannadice against Dundee United and the Swedes’ skipper took aim over the scheduling, insisting they could have played on Friday night or earlier on Saturday.
With a trip to Glasgow for Tuesday’s second leg, Christiansen thinks having an extra day to recover would help Swedish teams go further in Europe – pointing to Denmark moving FC Midtjylland’s game to Friday to help them prepare.
“I don’t know if the people that run football here actually want Swedish teams in Europe,” Christiansen said.
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“It’s just weird that we couldn’t have played on the Friday night or earlier in the day on Saturday. It was also our third away game in a row in the league.
“If you want Swedish teams to go further in Europe, you have to help them.
“Look at Denmark, they allowed FC Midtjylland to play on a Friday night instead. They help their teams.
“I can tell you if you play every three days, there is a big difference between getting that extra day of rest. Making it four days between games is better for your body and you recover quicker.
“Every hour counts when you are travelling by planes and buses to games.
“We have lost two points and that’s disappointing, but our energy levels suffered.”
With only a few hours between Rangers kicking off at Tannadice and Malmo’s game getting underway, there won’t really be any advantage for the Gers to gain.
Tuesday’s Ibrox clash is massive for both sides and both sets of players should be more than up for it, regardless of who kicked off first at the weekend.
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