Slovcko are tearing AIK apart, but still only have 1 goal to show for it. They've hit the cross bar and put one narrowly over, need to take their chances.
Slavia 1 - Rakow 2 I would give Slavia about 50-50 odds from this, from what I saw Rakow was better than I expected and Slavia's absences are adding up. Slavia is normally a much better team at home, but Rakow actually play very similar style and will be looking to press on any mistake and make Slavia work for everything.
75th minute Slovacko should easily be up by 3 or 4 goals, but still only have the 1. If they can even just get a 2nd I would like their chances to advance. And they finally get a 2nd in the 77th minute. One more goal and they are definitely to the group stages, but even this result odds in their favor.
3-0, finally it's a party in Uherske Hradiste after squandering numerous early chances they are poised to head to Sweden with a comfortable aggregate margin.
FT Slovacko 3-0 AIK That should be more than enough to get Slovacko through, but hopefully they can also pick up some points on the away fixture. Slovacko carried over their 2nd half performance from Fenerbahce against a much weaker opponent. The open questions next week: will Plzen be in Champions League or Europa League, and will Slavia join Sparta in not being in European group stage at all. If Slavia were to bomb out we'd probably be better with Plzen in EL where they can realistically get some coefficient points.
💵 Minimum prize money* if the clubs reach #UCL 🔵.Benfica: € 38 390 625Dynamo Kyiv: € 29 290 625Viktoria Plzeň: € 17 915 625 - € 21 328 125Crvena zvezda: € 16 778 125 - € 21 328 125Qarabağ FK: € 16 778 125 - € 20 190 625Maccabi... ⬇️🔗 https://t.co/HmVFfUMks2— Fotcalc.com (@fotcalc) August 23, 2022 No pressure, Plzen.
30 minutes in 0-0, great crowd but just okay match. Plzen probably a little better overall and winning a lot of corners, but yet to convert any into a great chance.
Qarabag just took the lead around minute 40 with a really nice volley after their freekick was initially cleared. Slightly against the run of play, but overall the match is fairly even. Plzen are flailing a bit since the goal, so they really need to hold it together until HT.
Plzen leveled in almost the exact same way that Qarabag went ahead, no volley but tremendous touch and placement by Kopic to punish an inadequate clearance. Back to even with 30 minutes to go, Plzen hopefully will feel a bit boosted from getting on the scoreboard.
Plzen starting to take over the last few minutes are their best stretch since the opening 10. And just as I say that Kliment puts them up 2-1 in the 73 minute. They aren't in the clear yet though.
FT Plzen 2 - 1 Qarabag (2-1 agg) Plzen have reached the Champions League group stages for the 4th time in their history (all since 2011). A remarkable and improbable accomplishment when not long ago most thought there era was over. I won't say it was convincing this round by 5 wins and a draw through qualifying is nothing to scoff at.
Plzen's win and qualification to the Group Stage has bumped us up to 14 in UEFA Coefficient for the moment, and currently 13 is Russia who have no team participating this year. I don't really expect Plzen to get much of anything else looking at the teams in Champions League... although Plzen have made a habit of defying expectations... so the key results for our chances remain Slavia and Slovacko in the conference league.
I was traveling today so couldn't watch, but Slovacko and Slavia finished off an admittedly wonderful week for Czech teams in Europe. Slavia 2-0 Rakow (3-2 agg) A goal in the 120 minute avoided stoppage time and got Slavia (who are pot 1 for the group stage) into the conference league. They should be able to advance. AIK 0 - 1 Slovacko (0-4) Sensational contribution from our outsider club in Europe. This is a last hurrah likely for their many veterans like Petrzela and Kadlec, but a great accomplishment for the smallest top flight city in our league. In addition to 3 teams in Groups, this moved us above Russia to 13th in coefficient. Plzen may be done contributing with their group, but Slavia and Slovacko should get enough points to guarantee top 15, and possibly even a few spots higher.
Back in town, so will update on the group draws: Champions League: Plzen will be against Bayern, Barcelona, and Internazionale Pot 4 honestly are rarely expected to do much in CL, and this would be no exception. Any points they steal would be bonus and making it to 3rd place to drop the EL would be a miracle. Europa Conference League: Slavia will play Sivasspor, Cluj, and Balkani (Kos) Anything less than first place in this group would be a massive disappointment even if this Slavia team is not quite up to their recent standard. Slovacko will play Partizan, Koln and Nice On paper, Nice and Koln despite being Pots 3 & 2 are arguably amongst the top 10 or so teams in this competition, so advancing might be tough. Partizan is more equivalent to Slovacko, but will definitely be motivated. I think Slovacko finish 3rd in this group.
As always @ASU55RR, appreciate all the work in contributing these updates and your insight over the summer months. Thank you! I’ve only been able to watch very little match content live of late and have even fallen behind on watching highlights, so definitely need to get myself caught up and back in the loop.
It's an odd year, Slavia are down but still clearly the best path to European success. Plzen out of their depth, but honestly already did there bit by even making it that far (and the big injection of money was crucial to their next few seasons). Slovacko have actually probably been the most fun team to watch in Europe and its really unfortunate that they don't have more points as they really were dominant against Partizan and competitive against Koln. I think their veteran core like Petrzeka and Kadlec has played with a real since of this is the last chance to play at this level.
Down the in the MSFL (3rd tier)... Kroměříž is looking really strong and I hope that they can get promoted to the 2.liga. They are currently six points clear of Slovan Rosice.They last played in the 2nd tier back in the 2005/06 season. I went to watch HFK Olomouc play Brno B a few weeks back. Back in the early 2000's they were a strong 2nd tier club but it looks like the club is dying. There were only around 75 people at the match vs Brno B which is really low for a 4th tier club.
30 Minutes in, Slovacko - Nice is still 0-0. This is probably the most outplayed Slovacko have looked in a match so far, but even so they still are having their moments. One thing they have had today that they've not had in the other 2 matches is a net-negative impact GK performance.... yet.
HT 0-0 After an opening 12 minutes where Nice seemed to be absolutely swarming and managed 2 near misses and a couple of more shots this has turned into a very timid match that Slovacko have slightly had the better of on balance (there were I think 2 shots on goal the entire last 20 minutes of the half, but both were the home side).
There is a reason I put "yet" there as the ghost of Filip Nguyen's career just gifted another goal to their opponents, he has cost them a lot of points and unfortunately the backup is no better.
FT 0-1 It's a team game, but it has to be mentioned that Filip Nguyen has single-handedly cost Slovacko 3 points in the 2 matches he's started this group stage. It's a shame as by the time this match ended it was clear Slovacko were again equaling or exceeding their higher rated opponent.
Slovacko managed a historic win in the return match against Nice 1-2; and not surprisingly it coincided with Nguyen's best (and probably only particularly good) performance of the season. Suddenly they are back in contention for advancement as their group is very tightly contested. The dropped points in the Partizan match may come back to cost them though. Frankly of the 3 Czech teams they are the one I would most want to see advance. Slavia squandered their position by failing to produce a goal in 2 matches they controlled the majority of against Cluj. They need to pull it together or else they are at risk of failing to advance. Currently we are in 13th position on coefficient but unless we get some more points the next 2 rounds we are far from safe in the top 15.
Slovacko - Koln is being delayed by severe fog apparently. They are still hoping to have kickoff tonight, but visibility is still low and I sort of agree it's unlikely to clear in reasonable time: Těžko si představit, že se dneska v tomto bude hrát, pokud se mlha nezvedne... 😬🤷♂️Výkop odložen (zatím) o 30 minut.#slovacko #UECL #Fortunaliga #ceskyfotbal pic.twitter.com/4EXHC0wmjb— Spejbl (@TenSpejbl) October 27, 2022
And the match has been officially abandoned, frankly about time there was no way the weather would permit this match.