European Thursday: Maribor at home to Luxembourg, Celje away to Vitoria, both talk of promotion
On Thursday, two matches will take place in the European qualifiers, which could bring a new measure of satisfaction to Slovenian club football. Maribor and Celje will play the return leg of the second round of the Conference League qualifiers; the Violistas will play at home against Luxembourg club Differdange, while the Countries will face a tough away game at Vitoria Guimaraes. Maribor drew 1-1 in the first leg, Celje had a good performance but made too many mistakes and lost 2-3.
The match will kick off at 20.30 in Ljudski vrt, with Polish referee Krzysztof Jakubik officiating. In Portugal, the main speaker will be the Ukrainian Justice Minister Viktor Kopiievskyi, who will give the signal for the start at 21.15 (Slovenian time).
Maribor without Aljaz Antolin
“It was a very tough game in Luxembourg, we have another 90 minutes to play. We are the favourites, but we need to confirm this on the pitch. I am looking forward to the return leg in front of our fans, who always provide a good atmosphere. Our preparations have been successful and we are only focused on the match. My first weeks in Maribor are behind me, I like the city and the club has welcomed me very well. The first adjustment period is behind me, but there are still things I can and must improve in the game. I’m not completely satisfied with my performances yet, but I will do my best to improve my game and contribute even more to the overall success. So it will be very important to take the next step on the European path and I believe that we will be the ones who will be happy at the end together with the fans,” is for
club website
before the return leg against the Luxembourgers, Maribor’s Japanese defender Itsuki Urata pointed out .
Maribor coach Damir Krznar, who wants to see the game with significantly smaller numbers
technical errors
, can breathe a sigh of relief these days, as the virus is no longer creeping through the locker room of the Styrian club. The latter will be weakened, however, including young Aljaž Antolin, who celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday. “Viruses are, thankfully, a thing of the past. Of course, guys who have missed a few practices in between are not ready for the full 90 minutes. I hope that the illnesses have not taken too much of our strength, but we will have to spread the minutes depending on the intensity of the match. Soudani, Vrhovec and Guerrico are still out due to injuries, while Antolin joined the squad after suffering a heavy blow in the penalty area during Sunday’s match against Aluminium. It was not a concussion, he was examined but the doctor refuses to allow him to perform,” explained the Croatian expert.
Albert Riera: “It’s where you make mistakes that matters”
Albert Riera is also having some problems and it will be interesting to see if Mario Kvesic, who missed the first game, can play. Regardless, the Spanish expert, who led Celje to a great victory over Mura last weekend (the Black and Whites went down 5-0), is in a good mood ahead of the return leg against the Portuguese.
“We are still alive in a 180-minute match,” said the former Olimpija coach. “We are playing against a big team, but I want my team to be the one to dictate the rhythm. Our aim is to repeat the second half from the first game. In the first one, we scored the opening goal after 18 seconds, but after that we also had problems because of the psychological burden of the advantage. I have told my boys: when you score the first goal, you have to get the second. We will be looking for goals again, we want to win, but we will play smart and carefully. You can’t win a game in the opening 15, 20 minutes. I hope that we will make the most of the space that the Portuguese will no doubt leave us. Football is also made up of mistakes, but it’s where you make mistakes that matters. We will have to be better defensively, because we know what went wrong in the first game,” said Albert Riera at a press conference ahead of the return leg against Zlatko Zahović’ s former club.
This text was automatically translated using AI.