Celje back in Europe for the first time in three years, but the opponent will be a big challenge: Albert Riera and his charges host Vitoria in the capital of the capital
Europe has not brought much joy to the capital in the last decade.
Celje
has played nine European games since 2012, suffered seven defeats and won only twice. Their only promotion came in 2020, when they were beaten 3-0 by Dundalk (one match decided promotion due to a covid), and the last time the Styrians made it to the next round of the competition after two matches was 20 years ago! In 2003, Albert Riera left Mallorca for the first time in his career and signed for Bordeaux, and two decades later, as the new coach, he will try to lead Celje over a very, very tough European opponent.
Celje will play against Vitoria Guimaraesthe former club of Zlatko Zahović, who finished last season in sixth place in the Portuguese championship. Vitoria has been one of Portugal’s top clubs for many years, and the old tradition is that clubs there are always full of individual quality anyway. Vitoria is no different and Celje has a very difficult task ahead of it.
The match at the Z’land Stadium will kick off at 20:00. 1:00, with justice being administered by Cypriot judge Chrysovalantis Theouli.
“Vitoria is a great team, near the top of the Portuguese championship standings. A very competitive team. It is difficult to predict the result. We may have eight chances and the opponent two, but they will win 2:0. In football, you never know. Above all, I want us to be competitive. That is my only goal. To smell that we can compete with them. We are preparing for it to be so,” says Albert Riera, who recently replaced Roman Pilipchuk in Celje.
The Spaniard is facing some personnel problems ahead of the showdown, as he is without three important members of his team. Denis Popovic was on the sidelines from earlier and was joined by newcomers Mario Kvesic, who suffered a painful blow in Kidričevo, and Nejc Ajhmaher.
This text was automatically translated using AI.