An insight to Bangor City’s Europa League opponents Lyngby BK
Bangor City were rewarded for their Play-Off win over Cardiff Metropolitan with a Round One qualifier with Danish side Lyngby BK, but just who are the Citizens opponents?
The two sides will first meet in Denmark next Thursday, before The Royal Blues travel to Bangor for the return leg.
Lyngby were a club that were found in 1921 after their initial team disabled in 2015. They made history by being the first team in their native land to wear their name on their shirts.
For their first piece of division silverware, it would take 62 years before they claimed the Denmark’s top prize and in doing so made their debut on the European Stage, beating Albanian side KF Elbasani 6-0 on aggregate before losing to Sparta Prague 2-1 on aggregate in the next round.
In 2001 the club were forced to play amateur players as they finished bottom in the top flight, where they would drop even further due to their bankruptcy but in the 2006-2007 season, they had won promotion back to the top flight, after a five year exile.
Unfortunately they would be relegated though and up until the 15/16 season, they would be playing in the lower tiers.
Remarkably though, the club finished third in their first season back in the top flight, thus qualifying for the chance to represent Denmark in the Europa League.
Their manager…
David Nielsen could be a name known to Wimbledon and Norwich fans reading this, as he played for the two clubs during a two-year spell in England.
Nielsen is a relatively young manager, with his last appearance in football, only stretching back to 2011, as he turned out for Fyllingen, before the merger between themselves and Lov-Ham.
His involvement with Lyngby happened after departing Norwegian side Stormsgodset, where he had a 38.71% win percentage. He would take Lyngby back to the Danish top flight in his first season in charge, before being the mastermind behind their success last season.
Their playing squad…
Interestingly, Lyngby don’t have many non Danish players, with only Kristoffer Larsen, Kim Ojo and Hallgrimur Jonasson the only players to not come from Denmark.
One player that does catch the eye those is Jeppe Kjaer who was brought into the club at the same time as manager David Nielsen. The 31 year-old who had a fairly impressive goal scoring record for both Roskilde and HB Koge, scoring 70 goals in 42 appearances for his previous two sides.
Since his move to Lyngby, he scored eight goals in his first season for the club, before scoring 10 goals for Vikingerne in their first season back in the top flight, in which he was in the top ten for top goal scorers for the season. A player that has shown he is capable of making the step up to a higher-division.
Their stadium..
One thing fans love to do is find out what stadium they’ll be travelling to as they watched their beloved side and the Lyngby Stadion is one that has been around for 68 years.
The 10,000 capacity stadium with 2,800 seats has been the home of Boldklub for some time and has since since seen some development over the years with a new stand with no seats in was put in place.
A bit like the Connah’s Quay Nomads and Jenner Park, the ground does have a running track around the pitch.
The fans of Lyngby are a passionate bunch and it will make for an raucous atmosphere when Bangor City arrive for the first leg.
(Featured Image: Sigvaldason)
