The highest Slovak football competition returned to Košice on Saturday evening after eight years. The match with Slovan Bratislava was sold out in 24 hours.
“For us from Košice, it’s a big football holiday,” FC Košice fan Martin, who came to the match with his son, tells us.
The official number of spectators in the new Košice football arena was 5,836. After completion, the modern stadium should accommodate up to 12,658 fans.
Although it rained in Košice on Saturday morning, the rain stopped in the evening. A rainbow even appeared over the arena before kickoff.
We also met an 84-year-old Košice fan in front of the stadium. “I’ve been through something,” he laughs, saying he thinks it will be a draw today. “We will be satisfied with a point, as long as we don’t lose,” he continues. When asked about the new arena, the old man smiles and says: “We are proud of Košice, because when it is finished, it will be something wonderful.”
The fans from Bratislava were also very interested in the match, and in the stadium you could mainly hear shouting between the home and away sectors, which were located in opposite corners of the Košice football arena. About four hundred people came to support Slovan. The organizers were afraid of possible conflicts between the two fan camps. However, nothing serious happened in the end, although the encouragement was accompanied by profanity.
Before kick-off, smoke was billowing from the home side. Photo – TASR
Weiss: People come to watch players like that
Before the match, Slovan’s line-up was a big question mark. The people of Bratislava are currently fighting in the 2nd preliminary round of the Champions League against the team Zrinjski Mostar. Although they won the first match on the field of the champions of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1:0, revenge awaits them already on Tuesday at the Tehelno field.
Trainer Vladimír Weiss sr. therefore he spared several players. Compared to Tuesday’s match at Zrinjské Mostar, he changed the entire starting eleven except goalkeeper Milan Borjan.
Kyriakos Savvidis, Marko Tolić, Tigran Barseghyan or Sharani Zuberu started the match against Košice only on the bench. Vladimír Weiss Jr., Aleksandar Čavrić, Kenan Bajrić and Džaba Kankava were completely absent from the lineup.
Only an 18-year-old Slovak made his first start in Slovan’s starting line-up in a league match in Košice
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2023-07-30 05:30:08
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