RBK was down both 0-2 and later 1-3, but displayed great team spirit and got one well deserved point in the first match of this year's Eliteserie.

"We made it difficult for ourselves by letting in two goals on their first two corners, and then Lillestrøm scored a third goal on the third chance they had today too. I'm very happy with us getting back into the game again. It was a great display of team spirits," Per-Mathias Høgmo told TV2 after the match.

RBK had to make some changes to the lineup. Per Ciljan Skjelbred did not recover fully from the the mild shin injury he got in the friendly game against Viking, while Christer Basma had to throw in the towel due to illness. Therefore Frode Johnsen got to play midfielder, while Vidar Riseth had to play central defender because Miika Koppinen was pushed out on the right back. And Daniel Braaten, due to his extreme speed and one on one skills, played in favour of the able footed Karim Essediri.

As usual the match was very physical and full of action. Five out of the six goals, all three of RBK's, were made with the head.

Early in the match it seemed that RBK were going to lose. For a while LSK won all of the duels and were in the lead with two goals after fifteen minutes. Both goals came after corners signed Christoffer Andersson. On the first goal Vidar Riseth was held down by Frode Kippe, who, standing close to the goal, easily scored. Ten minutes afterwards Olivier Occean doubled the lead when he won a duel against Koppinen, and then headed the ball above Lars Hirschfeld.

But then everything changed. Miika Koppinen only needed five minutes to get revenge on Occean: Storflor's corner from the left hit Koppinen, who now won the duel against Occean, and headed the ball into the net via keeper Heinz Müller's feet.

After that Rosenborg owned the game. Øyvind Storflor was among those who spead up the attack, and the away team created many great chances. Nonetheless, the result was still 2-1 at halftime.

In the second half RBK continued the nice play, but got no equalizing goal. Instead Robert Koren scored a 3-1 goal with a beautiful shot in the opposite upper corner after both Roar Strand and Mikael Dorsin had failed to get the ball away.

Luckily the aforementioned duo got their revenge. Dorsin got an opportunity to show off his precise passing foot. 3-2 came after the Swedish left back had taken a free kick from the edge of the 16 meter line. In front of the goal Frode Johnsen jumped up and steered the ball behind the keeper.

Rosenborg got hungry for more and only three minutes later the important equalizing goal came. Dorsin was the architect behind the goal. He found Strand with a long pass who headed the ball into the goal.

LSK were shocked after having lost the lead, and RBK could have won had they only been a little bit more precise, but it ended 3-3.

"The way the match went today, getting one point was okay. We were close to getting three points today, but we showed good morale and a good team spirit. We showed everybody that this RBK team is going to be hard to beat this year. We got three goals against LSK away - and that is okay," Høgmo concluded.

PS! Roar Strand played his match number 346 in the Eliteserie, and matched the record held by the legendary Rosenborg goalie Ola By Rise.

Match information

Lillestrøm	3-3	ROSENBORG
Frode Kippe 4 Olivier Occean 15 Robert Koren 70		Miika Koppinen 20 Frode Johnsen 82 Roar Strand 85

Sunday 9. April 2006 20:00
The Tippeliga, Åråsen stadium, Lillestrøm
10 316 attendants

Rosenborg [4-3-3]
Lars Hirschfeld - Miika Koppinen, Bjørn Tore Kvarme, Vidar Riseth (Alexander Tettey 74), Mikael Dorsin - Roar Strand, Jan Gunnar Solli, Frode Johnsen - Daniel Braaten, Thorstein Helstad (Yssouf Kone 68), Øyvind Storflor (Steffen Iversen 74)

Yellow cards RBK: Vidar Riseth, Bjørn Tore Kvarme