The 2013 season was Molde's sixth consecutive year in Tippeligaen, and their 37th season in the top flight of Norwegian football. It was Ole Gunnar Solskjær's third season as the club's manager. Molde were the defending champions in Tippeligaen, but lost their first four matches in the league and collected six points in the first ten games. The team did however turn the bad form, and finished the season in sixth place. The team won the 2013 Norwegian Football Cup, after defeating their main rivals Rosenborg 4–2 in the final. In Europe, Molde entered the UEFA Champions League in the second qualifying round, where they defeated Sligo Rovers. In the next round, the team was eliminated by Legia Warszawa on away goals. Molde proceeded to the Europe League play-off round, where they were knocked out by Rubin Kazan.
Season summary Molde started the season poorly, losing their first four games. Their first point of the season came on 20 April 2013 in a 1–1 draw away to Odds, with Molde's goal coming from Daniel Berg Hestad. Molde's first victory of season came in the first round of the Norwegian Cup away to Elnesvågen. They won 0-5 with the goals coming from new signings Aliou Coly, four, and Agnaldo. Their first league win of the season was a 4–1 victory against Aalesunds on 9 May 2013, with Joona Toivio, Magnus Wolff Eikrem and Jo Inge Berget scoring the goals. Molde then went on a 3-game winless streak that included a 1–5 defeat to Haugesund, their worst loss at home since Tromsø won 7–0 against Molde on 2 September 1995. This was also Molde's first ever loss against Haugesund at home.
Molde's second league victory came in their 12th game of the season, a 4–0 home defeat of Hønefoss that saw Molde rise off the bottom of the table for the first time all season. Molde had 4 players called up to the Norwegian U-21's for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship in June 2013. These players were goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland, defender Martin Linnes, midfielder Magnus Wolff Eikrem and attacker Jo Inge Berget. Both Eikrem and Berget scored in Norway's 1–3 victory over England on 8 June 2013. Molde's first game back after the summer break was a 6–0 fourth round cup win over Adeccoligaen side Ranheim to put them into the Quarter-finals. Molde were 3–0 at half time after goals from Agnaldo 5mins, Gatt 17 and Simonsen 27. The second half goals came courtesy of a Jørgen Olsen Own goal in the 49th, Ekpo in the 50th and Chima rounded it off with his 5th goal of the season in the 80th minute. Molde narrowly continued their unbeaten run in their first league game back after the break with a 3–3 away draw against Vålerenga. Molde went 1–0 down after 10minutes when Morten Berre scored for the homeside, before Jo Inge Berget and Martin Linnes both scored to give Molde a halftime lead. In the second half Jan Gunnar Solli equalised for Vålerenga before Berre's second put them in the lead again. Agnaldo popped up the first minute of injury time to earn a point for the away side.
On 24 June, Magnus Wolff Eikrem was sold to Dutch Eredivisie side SC Heerenveen for 10,000,000 NOK. After round 14 of the championship, on 29/30 June, Molde moved out of the automatic relegation places for the first time during the season. Molde came from behind to win 3-1 at home to Sarpsborg 08 on 29 June 2013, thanks to goals from Martin Linnes, Daniel Chima and Zlatko Tripić after Jérémy Berthod had given the lead early in the first half. The game against Sarpsborg 08 also resulted in a serious knee injury for Josh Gatt, which ruled him out for the remainder of the season.
3 July 2013 saw Molde take on Adeccoligaen side Mjøndalen in the quarterfinals of the Norwegian Cup, winning the match 2-0 with goals from Even Hovland and Zlatko Tripić. On the same day Molde announced the signing of Norwegian U21 international Mats Møller Dæhli from Manchester United on a two-and-a-half-year contract. 2 days later, on 5 July, Lauri Dalla Valle left Molde after only 6 appearances to join Belgian Second Division side Sint-Truiden. On the same day Molde announced that Per Egil Flo would be joining them from Sogndal on 15 July. On 10 July, it was announced that Tommy Høiland was joining on 15 July, and 11 July it was announced that Vegard Forren was returning to the club following his unsuccessful spell at Southampton. Forren made his 2nd debut for Molde two days later in Molde's 1-0 away victory over Sligo Rovers in the 1st leg of the Champions League 2nd qualifying round. The winning goal for Molde came in the 42nd minute from Daniel Chima.
Transfers
In Date Position Nationality Name From Fee February 2013 FW Aliou Coly Casa Sport 25 February 2013 FW Lauri Dalla Valle Fulham 13 March 2013 DF Joona Toivio Djurgården 29 March 2013 FW Ben Spencer Chivas USA Free GK Ørjan Nyland IL Hødd Free 3 July 2013 MF Mats Møller Dæhli Manchester United 5 July 2013 DF Per Egil Flo Sogndal 10 July 2013 FW Tommy Høiland Sandnes Ulf 11 July 2013 DF Vegard Forren Southampton 15 July 2013 FW Fredrik Gulbrandsen Lillestrøm
Dæhli, Flo, Høiland and Forren's transfers were announced on the above dates, and were finalised on 15 July.
Out Date Position Nationality Name To Fee 18 January 2013 DF Vegard Forren Southampton Undisclosed 26 January 2013 FW Davy Claude Angan Hangzhou Greentown 12,000,000 NOK 5 March 2013 DF Krister Wemberg Bryne Bryne henter midtstopper (Bryne gets defender) ; jbl.no, 5 March 2013 FW Simon Markeng Kristiansund FW Pape Paté Diouf Copenhagen Loan Return 24 June 2013 MF Magnus Wolff Eikrem Heerenveen 10,000,000 NOK 5 July 2013 FW Lauri Dalla Valle Sint-Truiden
Loans in Date from Date to Position Nationality Name From Season-long MF Agnaldo Desportivo Brasil
Loans out Date from Date to Position Nationality Name To February 2013 July 2013 MF Pål Erik Ulvestad Hønefoss April 2013 Season-Long MF Magnus Stamnestrø Sogndal Season-long GK Ola Hermann Opheim Kristiansund July 2013 End of Season DF Magnar Ødegaard Lillestrøm
Released Date Position Nationality Name Joined Date 23 April 2013 MF Abdou Karim Camara Cherbourg August 2013 15 July 2013 DF Sean Cunningham 1 October 2013 DF Børre Steenslid Retired, joined coaching staff
Pre-season games
Copa del Sol
Competitions
Tippeligaen
Results summary
Results by round
Fixtures
Table
Norwegian Cup
Final
UEFA Champions League
Qualifying phase
UEFA Europa League
Qualifying phase
Squad statistics
Appearances and goals
|colspan=14|Players away from Molde on loan:
|colspan=14|Players who appeared for Molde no longer at the club:
Disciplinary record NumberNationPositionNameTippeligaenNorwegian CupChampions LeagueEuropa LeagueTotal4 DF Even Hovland 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 5 DF Joona Toivio 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 6 MF Daniel Berg Hestad 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 0 7 MF Magnus Wolff Eikrem 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 8 FW Fredrik Gulbrandsen 2 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 4 1 9 FW Mattias Moström 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 10 MF Magne Hoseth 7 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 11 FW Jo Inge Berget 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 14 DF Martin Linnes 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 16 MF Etzaz Hussain 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 17 FW Aliou Coly 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 18 DF Magne Simonsen 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 20 FW Lauri Dalla Valle 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 20 FW Tommy Høiland 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 21 FW Agnaldo 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 22 MF Josh Gatt 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 23 DF Knut Olav Rindarøy 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 25 DF Vegard Forren 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 4 0 27 FW Daniel Chima 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 29 MF Emmanuel Ekpo 2 0 1 0 3 1 0 0 6 1 30 MF Zlatko Tripić 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 TOTALS3838010410595
See also Molde FK seasons
Notes
References