“When we played Manchester United I told my teammates that we will get chances – we just have to be ruthless when we get them,” Mohamed Elyounoussi says on a cold January afternoon in Copenhagen. “That was the moment they realised: ‘OK, the level of football is high, but not as high as we thought it would be.’”
The former Southampton winger is one of the leading players at FC Copenhagen, the Danish side who last autumn progressed from a Champions League group containing Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Galatasaray and will take on Manchester City in the first leg of the last 16 on Tuesday. Led by the 35-year-old head coach, Jacob Neestrup, Copenhagen beat United 4-3 at home and earned a draw at Bayern, the only points dropped by the German side in the group stage.
Elyounoussi scored Copenhagen’s first goal in the comeback win against United, showing his teammates what was possible. But that game, and the 1-0 win against Galatasaray in December that secured their progression to the knockout stage, feels like a long time ago. Everyone at the club, including Elyounoussi and Neestrup, is looking forward, not back.
“In Denmark, the situation is such that we played our last game against Galatasaray in the middle of December and we restart our season two months later,” Neestrup says after finishing up the first of the day’s two training sessions. “Our first match in 2024 will be Manchester City. That is very tricky, but it is what it is.”
His team are preparing for the game in Frederiksberg, in western Copenhagen, the club’s training centre pretty much hidden from passers-by, nestled between residential buildings. An old two-story building with brick-coloured roof tiles has a sign that reads “FC København” and the air is pierced by Neestrup shouting instructions to his players. As we enter the premises we are faced with a training pitch that leaves something to be desired. It reminds me of the Stamford Bridge turf from 2006 when Chelsea took on Barcelona in the Champions League on a “potato field” in the words of José Mourinho.
It had been snowing in Copenhagen and the main training pitch was not ready, Elyounoussi explains but adds that the surface at a packed Parken stadium on Tuesday will be perfect.
“I have been lucky to play Manchester City in the Champions League before [for Basel in 2018] and to even score so I have nice memories of playing them. But for us here it was the worst draw we could get and maybe the best draw for them. They won the Champions League and are still hungry for more. There will probably be a lot of defending for us to do in that game,” Elyounoussi says with a grin.
Elyounoussi joined Copenhagen after Southampton were relegated at the end of the 2022-23 season. He had to battle injuries and was loaned out to Celtic for two seasons, but says he arrived in Denmark a wiser person and a better footballer. “A lot of things went against me for a long time, which I had never experienced before. But it was a good experience, getting through the injuries and having less playing time. I learned how to become tougher mentally, to come back and deserve my place in the team.”
The 29-year-old was a signing in keeping with Copenhagen’s transfer strategy, which has shades of what Ajax did so successfully five or six years ago: signing proven, big-name players and putting them in a team with talented academy graduates. Working with Neestrup, Elyounoussi is playing under a coach who is only six years older. “I was even surprised at how young he is,” he says. “He is a demanding coach. He demands that I deliver on the pitch but also ensures I have the freedom to be myself. I play sometimes on either wing, sometimes in central midfield. But I have a toolbox with various tools in it. The coach is energetic and I believe he has a bright future.”
Neestrup is more than just the coach. As a native, he understands the club and the city like few others. He started his playing career at Copenhagen but suffered a serious ankle injury two minutes into his first-team debut. He was out for eight months and when he returned there were other injuries. He was forced to cut his career short at 23.
Neestrup had been working hard since. By 25, he was Copenhagen’s Under-17 coach, and in 2021, after short spell at Viborg, he was made first team assistant coach. After a poor start to the 2022-23 season the club sacked Jess Thorup and asked Neestrup to take over. “I was never in doubt when we had to appoint a new head coach,” says Peter Christiansen, Copenhagen’s sporting director. “Jacob knows what he wants and understands how we want to develop our football. We follow a really ambitious model with experienced players and youngsters with high potential.”
Neestrup rescued that campaign, ending it with a league and cup double. This season, he guided the side through three Champions League qualifying rounds before their heroics in the group stage. “We had a perfect 2023 except for the 10 or 12 days following the Man United game,” Neestrup says. “In two league matches [against Viborg and AGF], we played quite well but lost. We would otherwise win those games 10 out of 10 times. And then a cup game [against Silkeborg] was a disaster. We were poor. We lost the first game and then won the return leg, but it was too late, we were eliminated.”
Between 2017 and 2021 Copenhagen won one league title and did not qualify for the Champions League group stage. But two league titles in 2022 and 2023 are proof they are back at the top of the domestic pile and a big reason for that is the club’s academy. “Our model can only be achieved with an intelligent and serious strategy at the academy,” Christiansen says.
Twelve years ago Copenhagen started a collaboration with 50 clubs, helping them with young players’ development. The program allows the club to closely work with 33,000 footballers – around 10% of all registered players in Denmark. It means Copenhagen can beat other clubs to the best talents and bring them to their academy.
“It has taken us years of hard work but everything is in place now,” Christiansen explains. “Talents need an education of the highest quality. With well-educated coaches, specialists and analysts we have created a pipeline of talents for years to come. Then you still need the courage to play them on the biggest stage, sometimes several of them at the same time. Not everyone dares to do that, but we do.”
Copenhagen moved into their training centre in 2006 but upgraded the facilities recently in keeping with the club’s growth. A new temporary building was erected in 2022, which gave the club new space for a fitness room and an auditorium, also used for the youth players’ schooling.
All the coaching staff from under-14s to under-19s share the same large office space, leading to conversations and cooperation at different age levels. It is a safe space for the staff to discuss player development and training sessions. It fosters a sense of the collective being prioritised rather than individuals. “We have a strong inner circle here,” Christiansen notes.
All the hard work has paid off. When Copenhagen met Manchester City in October 2022 they had six academy graduates in the starting XI and that trend has continued since. “We have a perfect platform for our youngsters here and that’s perfect for me,” Neestrup says.
Not all of the players stay at Copenhagen, of course. Bologna’s Victor Kristiansen and Lille’s Hákon Arnar Haraldsson are two players who have come through the club’s system and been sold abroad. Neestrup has Roony Bardghji and Oscar and Emil Højlund, the younger brothers of Manchester United’s Rasmus Højlund, in his first-team squad. “It has been critical for my career that I was a youth coach here,” he says. “How you work with the style of play and the training methods has helped me a lot. I worked with Denmark’s biggest talents so you push them, but they also push you. It is complex to be a coach at an academy.”
His work at youth level gave him the confidence to walk into a dressing room with players of similar age to him and prove his worth. “Yes, I am confident but I also trust my players,” he says. “There is nothing worse than coaches talking down the team’s chances from the start, to protect the team or the coach. The words we used before the Champions League started, but also during it, made the team and the fans realise we are here to perform and not just make up the numbers.”
Watching Neestrup’s training sessions the energy Elyounoussi was referring to is immediately evident. “He only accepts the absolute best,” Christiansen says. Like Pep Guardiola, Neestrup often stops the action. He takes the ball and gives specific instructions for his players to follow. He is vibrant and passionate but also patient and attentive to details. After the work is done, he insists not everything is about facing Manchester City. “This match has been in the back of my mind for a while. It’s the biggest game in the whole season for everyone, but not the most important one,” Neestrup says.
Copenhagen are third in the Danish Superliga, three points behind Midtjylland and two behind Brøndby. “The league will always be the most important competition for us. It makes it possible for us to play in the Champions League. I look forward to the game but I also see it as one of at least 17 games we’ll have in the spring.”
Neestrup has already faced Guardiola twice, in last season’s group stage. They drew 0-0 at Parken but were then pummelled 5-0 in Manchester, a game that made a big impression on the Danish coach. “We went to City and did our very best in the first half, but we were three goals down and the game was lost. Then we switched to a 5-4-1 formation at half-time and I got to see [Guardiola] cope with new positions and behaviours in his team. I see they were immediately synchronised as a team in how they wanted to attack us. They had already won the game but the demands they put on themselves, to go on and find new solutions to their attacking play and to find new spaces, seeing that was interesting.”
Neestrup himself has had to adapt, his side now playing with a false No 9. That is not to copy Guardiola but due to injury problems. “It fits our playing style,” he says. “We used Haraldsson there, who is at Lille now, and [Viktor] Claesson. I like to play with a big striker but also with a false nine, which made us confident on the ball in the Champions League. It’s good having an extra player in the centre of the pitch.”
Guardiola is only one of the coaches Neestrup watches with interest. Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi is another. “The buildup play De Zerbi has achieved in the Premier League with Brighton has been very interesting to follow,” he says. “Then it’s important to see new versions of [Jürgen] Klopp and Guardiola and how they compete against each other. But I mostly watch teams which are at a similar level to us, like watching PSV Eindhoven destroy the Dutch league, to understand what it is they are doing; or how Sparta Prague play out from the back and move forward.
“I also spend more time watching [Xabi Alonso’s] Bayer Leverkusen in Germany. I know the English clubs have a lot of money but as a coach, you see that their teams being coached so well. They know exactly what to do in every situation. That’s where I find the most inspiration.”
In the end though, Neestrup does not feel that his team is defined by their tactics but who they are and who they represent. “This team translates a lot to what a typical person from Copenhagen is like. We are the biggest city in Scandinavia. I believe the team, the club, and the city have the space for everyone.
“It doesn’t matter if you were born in Denmark or not, whether you are from the Middle East or Africa. We have space for everyone. There is inclusivity and a big-city mentality. And then we have the big-club mentality at Copenhagen. That goes very much hand in hand.”
Whatever happens on Tuesday night there will not be the English tradition of the two coaches sharing a drink. “There is a lot of knowledge in Danish football and among Danish coaches,” Neestrup says. “So maybe we’ll just have a good chat. Let’s see.”
