UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2017/2018 1st Qualifying Round, 1st leg : Víkingur (Far) v Trepça'89 (Kos), 2-1 1-0 Gunnar Vatnhamar (17) 1-1 Fiton Hajdari (39) 2-1 Adeshina Lawal (73) Attendance: 841 http://www.bold.dk/fodbold/kamp/vikingur-vs-trepca-89/17877909/ 1st leg 27/28 June 2nd leg 4/5 July 2nd Qualifying Round, draw : MSK Zilina (Svk) v FC København (Den) Malmö FF (Swe) v Vardar Skopje (Mac) Dundalk (Irl) v Rosenborg BK (Nor) IFK Mariehamn (Fin) v Legia Warsaw (Pol) Hafnarfjordur ( Isl) v Víkingur (Far)/Trepça'89 (Kos) 1st leg 11/12 July 2nd leg 18/19 July .
Worst possible draw for FCK, getting the absolute highest ranked of the unseeded teams, MSK Zilina from Slovakia, a team that has been in the Champions League group stage in the past and almost bumped off Athletic Bilbao in the 2015-16 EL play-off round, but were eliminated on away goals... also Rosenborg were a bit out of luck, getting the Irish Champions, who reached the EL group stage last season, Malmö FF should have less of a problem with Vardar Skopje from Macedonia, while IFK Mariehamn were not among the seeded and so a team like Legia Warsaw is what they could expect....unlike Hafnarfjordur that just managed to get the very last spot among the seeded teams and also had the best possible luck in this draw, though unseeded Víkingur will probably think the same, if they manage to get past Trepça'89 from Kosovo.
1st Qualifying Round, 2nd leg : Trepça'89 (Kos) v Víkingur (Far) , 1-4 (agg: 2-6) Red Card : Blerand Kurtishaj, Trepça'89 (33) 0-1 Sorin Anghel (37) 0-2 Perparim Islami, (owngoal, 42) 0-3 Sølvi Vatnhamar (52) 0-4 Sølvi Vatnhamar (59) 1-4 Florent Hasani (65) http://www.bold.dk/fodbold/kamp/trepca-89-vs-vikingur/17877910/ Highlights ( the picture freeze for 20 seconds after the first goal, so just skip 20 seconds ahead) : 2nd Qualifying Round, draw : Hafnarfjordur ( Isl) v Víkingur (Far) An interesting clash between the Icelandic and Faroese Champions ... The Faroe Islands is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark , so kind of a far-away Danish province ... and though the general top level is around 4th level of what you will find in Denmark, some of their players have past experience playing 2nd and 3rd level in Denmark and they do manage to pick up players from the Danish Superliga and 1. Division from time to time .. like Adeshina Lawal who has played in the Superliga for FC Midtjylland and in both the Superliga and the Danish 1. Division for Vejle ... a top level 1. Division player who is also of Superliga quality ... Icelandic teams are around a level or two better and much better at youth development, and more of their players have experience playing in Denmark and Norway, just as their top clubs are able to attract more foreign Nordic players, but also from Scotland, like the Icelandic Champions Hafnarfjörður, that Vikingur are now going to face in the CL 2nd qualifying round. : Hafnarfjordur squad : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fimleikafélag_Hafnarfjarðar#Current_squad Víkingur squad : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Víkingur_Gøta#Current_squad
The attendance in Kosovo was 12,000 btw ... quite impressive and around 9,000 higher than any of the other games in the CL 1. qualifying round ...
2nd Qualifying Round,1st leg : MSK Zilina (Svk) v FC København (Den), 1-3 1-0 Nikolas Spalek (39) Red Card : Miroslav Kacer, Zilina (61) 1-1 Andrija Pavlovic (68) 1-2 Andrija Pavlovic (73) 1-3 Andrija Pavlovic ( 83) Attendance : 10,023 Highlights : Malmö FF (Swe) v Vardar Skopje (Mac), 1-1 0-1 Boban Nikolov (63) 1-1 Franz Brorsson (75) Attendance : 20,058 Dundalk (Irl) v Rosenborg BK (Nor), 1-1 1-0 David McMillan (18) 1-1 Tore Reginiussen (44) IFK Mariehamn (Fin) v Legia Warsaw (Pol), 0-3 0-1 Guilherme (Pen, 8) 0-2 Dominik Nagy (40) 0-3 Kasper Hämäläinen (44) Red Card : Anthony Dafaa Clement, IFK (61) Hafnarfjordur ( Isl) v Víkingur (Far), 1-1 1-0 Emil Palsson (49) 1-1 Adeshina Lawal (Pen, 73) 2nd leg 18/19 July
Not surprisingly Zilina from Slovakia were going to be a tough opponent at their own artifical turf, putting lots of pressure on a FCK team that has sold and replaced several of their key players from last season, not least in the rather shaky looking defense, where the Captain Mathias ’Zanka’ Jørgensen has been sold to Huddersfield in the English PL and left-back Ludwig Agustinsson has been sold to Werder Bremen this summer. So it was quite deserved when the home team took the lead shortly before the end of the first 45 minutes, though FCK's Andrija Pavlovic had given a slight warning of what was to come in the second half, by striking the Zilina woodwork. But in the 2nd half the match was totally turned upside down, when Miroslav Kacer got a second yellow card and so was send off, for making a dive in hope of getting a penalty. From that point on, it was only a matter of time before FCK were going to equalize and Zilina was doomed to lose this first leg match. As written, then FCK have lost several players, also their key striker Andreas Cornelius, who has been sold to Italian side Atalanta, but his replacement in this match, Andrija Pavlovic did more than well by scoring a second-half hat-trick against ten-man Zilina.... and with 3 away goals to FCK, it now seem an impossible mountain to climb for Zilina, now having to score at least 3 or 4 goals in the 2nd leg in Copenhagen for them to be able to progress. Malmö FF also fell behind in their 1st leg match and got a terrible 1-1 result at home against Vardar Skopje and now need a win or to score at least twice in Macedonia to be able to progress ... not impossible, but still an uphill battle, considering their 1st leg performance, where Vardar seemed to have the upper hand when they took the lead, but Malmö centre back Franz Brorsson canceled out Nikolov's opener with a fine header and Malmö also came close to a win when a blazing shot from Danish forward Anders Christiansen managed to strike the underside of the Vardar top bar in the 4th minute of added time... Highligts : Rosenborg also far from impressed, but still got away with a good 1-1 away result in Ireland. Dundalk took a deserved lead in the 18th minute through an excellent header by McMillan well assisted by a left-wing cross from Michael Duffy and Reginiussen equalized from close range after a delivery by Hedenstad at the end of the first 45 minutes... as you can also see below : As expected, Polish Champions Legia Warsaw was too big a task for IFK Mariehamn that have an impossible task in Poland after losing 0-3 at home. .... Faroese Champions Víkingur on the other hand keep impressing, this time by taking home an important 1-1 result in the away leg in Iceland against Hafnarfjordur, so this Nordic tie is still very much alive.
3rd Qualifying Round, draw : MSK Zilina (Svk)/ FC København (Den) v Malmö FF (Swe)/Vardar Skopje (Mac) Linfield (Nir)/Celtic (Sco) v Dundalk (Irl)/Rosenborg BK (Nor) Spartaks Jūrmala (Lat)/Astana (Kaz) v IFK Mariehamn (Fin)/Legia Warsaw (Pol) Zrinjski (Bos)/Maribor (Slo) v Hafnarfjordur (Ice) / Víkingur (Far) 1st leg 25/26 July 2nd leg 1/2 August .
Maribor, who won the first leg 2-1 away, have the worst coefficient of the five Group 1 seeded clubs, so it was a good draw for Hafnarfjordur or Vikingur.
Very true ... Hafnarfjordur would stand a fair chance ... I don't really think Vikingur would progress, if they manage to get this far ... though they are only Faroese team ever to progress to a 3rd EL and CL Q round in the past ...back in 2015-16, when they managed to eliminate Tromsø from Norway in the 2nd round of the EL qualifiers... , but progressing to a play-off round would be a first ... ... btw ... I see the Swedes are already talking about Malmö beating FCK to prove that they are on top in Scandinavia ... I think they perhaps should focus more on actually getting past Vardar, which i believe is still 50/50 ... but true ... FCK are in the process of replacing several key players they have sold ... but FCK still have what MLS would consider to be 19 hand-picked designated players, earning around half a million $ or more a year ... but good luck to Malmö, because they are going to need it, both in this round and even more so in the round next to come.. if they get that far ..
2nd Qualifying Round, 2nd leg : Vardar Skopje (Mac) v Malmö FF (Swe), 3-1 (agg: 4-2) 0-1 Markus Rosenberg (Pen. 16) 1-1 Boban Grncarov (56) 2-1 Tigran Barseghyan (61) 3-1 Boban Nikolov (90) Highlights: Víkingur (Far) v Hafnarfjordur ( Ice), 0-2 (agg: 1-3) Red card: Andreas Lava Olsen, Víkingur (78) 0-1 Steven Lennon (Pen, 79) 0-2 Thorarinn Ingi Valdimarsson (90) Malmö FF came off to a very good start in the away leg in Macedonia, taking an early lead through a deserved penalty, but as the match progressed, the home team took charge and seemed more likely to make the eqalizer in the 2nd half, which they did, followed up by a deserved penalty that was saved by Malmö keeper Johan Wiland, though only to see Barseghyan making use of the follow-up to bring Vardar in the lead. Then Malmö were in need of a goal, but they were playing and attacking much too slow to really trouble the Vardar defense and instead a defensive mistake made it easy for Nikolov to seal progress a few seconds into stoppage time. So Malmö is out of this years Europa Cup while Vardar will face FCK if they manage to eliminate Zilina in their 2nd leg match tomorrow. As expected, The Icelandic Champions were too tough a task for Vikingur, but obviously the red card and penalty did not help.
2nd Qualifying Round,2nd leg : FC København (Den) v MSK Zilina (Svk), 1-2 (agg: 4-3) 0-1 Yusuf Otubanjo (19) 1-1 Benjamin Verbic (Pen. 48) 1-2 Filip Kasa (57) Rosenborg BK (Nor) v Dundalk (Irl), 2-1 (agg: 3-2 AET) 0-1 Brian Gartland (12) 1-1 Yann-Erik de Lanlay (27) 2-1 Matthias Vilhjalmsson (98) Legia Warsaw (Pol) v IFK Mariehamn (Fin), 6-0 (agg: 9-0) 1-0 Guilherme (6) 2-0 Kristian Kojola, owngoal (33) 3-0 Michal Kucharczyk (40) 4-0 Michal Kucharczyk (Pen. 54) 5-0 Sebastian Szymanski (80) 6-0 Konrad Michalak (81) Terrible home game by FCK, especially in defense ... a bit strange that besides selling several of their key players FCK were also not fielding their captain William Kvist or their hattric hero from the first leg Andrija Pavlovic from start, so FCK were resting some of their key regular starters, which could have been fatal, because the FCK defense has looked very shaky so far this season ... In fact, FCK have not let in 2 goals at home in their past 17 Europa cup games, so this was quite a terrible performance ... so as I have witten before, they look very shaky in defense right now, still they had the opportunities to score several goals but missed their opportunites, while Zilina were highly efficient ... so a big gamble by FCK coach Solbakken to rest key players in this important a game, not least considering all the other key players they have sold ...and quite honestly, looking at their performance and the transfer window so far, Brøndby seem more likely to win the Danish Championship this season. 3rd Qualifying Round, draw : FC København (Den) v Vardar Skopje (Mac) Celtic (Sco) v Rosenborg BK (Nor) Maribor (Slo) v Hafnarfjordur (Ice) 1st leg 25/26 July 2nd leg 1/2 August .
3rd Qualifying Round,1st leg : Vardar Skopje (Mac) v FC København (Den), 1-0 1-0 Jonathan Balotelli (65) Celtic (Sco) v Rosenborg BK (Nor), 0-0 Maribor (Slo) v Hafnarfjordur (Ice), 1-0 1-0 Tavares (54) 2nd leg 1/2 August A very good performance by Rosenborg in Scotland, where they should have won against a toothless home team ... FCK on the other hand were absolutely horrid defensively and playing in slow motion in their away leg in Macedonia ... they could have scored a goal in the end, but it was only deserved that Vardar won the match ... still, it was an away leg played in more than 30ºC (86ºF), so FCK should be able to pick up the pace, though the big problem will be to keep Vardar from scoring a decisive away goal, considering how horrible the FCK defense has been so far this season ... right now they are not half as strong as last season for sure ...Hafnarfjordur did well in their away leg, though they lost by 1-0, so by the look at their performance they still got a chance.
3rd Qualifying Round, 2nd leg : FC København (Den) v Vardar Skopje (Mac), 4-1 (agg. 4-2) 1-0 Ján Gregus (2) 1-1 Boban Nikolov (19) 2-1 Tigran Barseghyan, owngoal (26) Red card: Ján Gregus, FC København (71) 3-1 Federico Santander (75) 4-1 Pieros Sotiriou (Pen. 88) Highlights : Rosenborg BK (Nor) v Celtic (Sco), 0-1 (agg. 0-1) 0–1 James Forrest (69) Hafnarfjordur (Ice) v Maribor (Slo), 0-1 (agg. 0-2) 0–1 Tavares (90) ____ FC København were on the brink of humiliation, being more than lucky to escape with a 0-0 home result against newly promoted Hobro in the Superliga this past week, but managed to win their very first home match this season beating Vardar from Macedonia, but in quite a mess of a game where they got off to an excellent start but then faded away, playing much to slow and looking horrible in defense... in the game against Hobro FCK defender Nicolai Boilesen got injured and is out for the next 4-5 weeks, which left without any genuine left back for the match against Vardar. Quuite disasterous it would seem, considering the many changes thay have had to maike in defense so far this season and how weak their defense has looked so far, which was also painfully obvious in this CL home game. Still, FCK seemed on top at half-time leading by 2-1, but then looked absolutely slow moving in attack, terrible in defense and on the brink of knockout in the second half, that is until their central midfielder Ján Gregus got send off for the 3rd time in an Europa cup match within the past year. Strangely playing 10 against 11 seemed to be the needed wake-up call that changed everything and made FCK pick up the pace and work much better as a team, while Varder on the other hand were playing a bit more attacking minded, going for a decisive second goal, which just made them seem more vulnerable in defense, leading to the two goals for FCK to secure the win. Federico Santander who had looked absolutely invisible, made the decisive 3-1 goal and then newly signed striker Pieros Sotiriou finished off the visitors in the 88th minute. Rosenborg unfortunately lost at home to Celtic, just as Hafnarfjordur from iceland, but they will get a second chance in the Europa league play-off's, though among the unseeded .... FCK will on the othe hand be seeded in the play-off's for the Champions League and should they lose the tie anyway, they are now sure to enter the Europa league group stage, which also has secured them a bonus of minimum of $8 million (DKK 50 million) from UEFA.. so now FCK will try to sign one or two reinforcements of Champions League quality before the transfer window is closed... The rumour is that thaty are interested in the young USA international box-to-box midfilder Kellyn Acosta..
Qarabag Agdam from Aserbajdsjan were probably the best possible draw FCK could have hoped for .. the other options were Slavia Praha, Hapoel Beer Sheva, Rijeka from Croatia and Astana from Kasakhstan ...
I think that Slavia Praha might have the best ... they're not that much stronger than Qarabag, but the travel is so much shorter and easier
Slavia Praha have been spending alot of money on reinforcements from bigger leagues this summer ... Halil Altıntop from Augusburg ... Danny from Zenit ...Ruslan Rotan from Dnipro .. older players of course, but still highly experienced former internationals .. not really what FCK need to be up against right now ...
After having watched them in action against FCK, I still think they were the easiest possible opponent and a team even this FCK team should be able to beat 9 out of 10 times ... but as feared, FCK are simple not able to keep their opponents from scoring goals at the moment, even if they only manage to produce one or two opportunities,... CL Play-off, 2nd leg : FC København v Qarabag Agdam, 2-1 ( Agg. 2-2, Qarabag Agdam win on away goals) 1-0 Federico Santander (45) 1-1 Dino Ndlovu (63) 2-1 Andrija Pavlović (66) Attendance: 21,222 Just as brilliant FCK were last season, I have never seen them defend as poorly as they are doing so far this season ... it's simple amateur mistakes they do ... and so they went out on away goals to a highly defensive minded Qarabag that only produced two opportunities throughout the 90 minutes, but still managed to score the needed away goal through some amateur defending by FCK, with 4 defenders just standing there doing nothing, while leaving the lone striker all the time and space he could possible want ... and on top of this, their top striker Santander also got seriously injured, perhaps in need of surgery and out for the rest of 2017. Still, they are now in the Europa League Group stage, which is probably also for the best, if they are to be able to progress to the later stages ... but it won't happen unless they get some reinforcements, also due to all the injuries that are piling up... At the moment FCK have made a €3 million ($3.5 million) on Celtic (and former Midtjylland) centre back Erik Sviatchenko and also a €2.5 million (around $ 3 million) bid on the 28-yo Greek-Portuguese Panathinaikos captain and box-to-box centre midfielder Zeca. Highlights:
i saw the score in the 50th minute and decided to watch the rest. it always felt like qarabag were more likely to score than fck were from what i saw. they each ended up scoring a second, but it never felt like fck were going to get the third they needed.
I very much disagree ...and Qarabag did not score a second goal ... FCK won by 2-1 ...and Qarabag were defending low, hardly able to leave their own half of the pitch and only managed to produce two good opportunites (including the goal) the whole match, as you can also see in the highlights above that give a very fair picture of the game ... the header was great but with some decent defending they would never have scored that goal and they never came anywhere near scoring a second ... but I agree that FCK were highly inefficient.