On Wednesday, the Latvian football club “Riga” made minimal concessions to the Swedish champion “Malmo” in the first game of the first round of the UEFA Champions League qualifying tournament after the rejection of Junusa Muritala. “Riga” lost to “Malmo” 0: 1.
Antonio Mirko Čolaks was the scorer.
Malmö had a good try after 33 minutes, coming in on a fine move from the left, but the ball went wide.
The visitors’ Junusa Muritala was shown a yellow card after 41 minutes for slicing down an opponent. In the 22nd minute he received the first yellow patch, but in the 41st minute he hit “Malmo” in the middle of the football field, seeing the yellow and red cards in front of him.
The free kick game ended with a dangerous play for “Riga” penalty area, where “Riga” footballers managed to block the shot.
In the 45th minute, Čolaks hit dangerously from the goalkeeper’s field with a head over a meter and 68 centimeters long Armands Pētersons, but the ball flew along the right goal post from outside.
It was in the 50th minute that Čolaks discovered the score after Jo Inges Bergeta had scored a penalty. Čolaks hit without stopping the ball, and “Riga” goalkeeper Roberts Ozols made a mistake on the goal line – 1: 0 in favor of the home team.
By the 60th minute, the guests had earned five yellow cards, one for each of Antonius Cernomordia, Milos Vranjanin and Vladislav Fyodorov, who was immediately replaced by Kulu Mbombo.
Meanwhile, the only yellow patch for the home team was earned by Anels Ahmedhodžič in the 14th minute of the match.-
The answer game in Riga is scheduled for July 13.
In their last Optibet Premier League game, Rigans unexpectedly lost to Liepāja with 0: 1, but RFS also lost in the last five matches (1: 3). During this period, the debutants of Daugavpils “Noah Jurmala”, as well as “Valmiera” – 1: 0 managed to win with 1: 0 and later with 2: 1.
“Riga” takes the second place in the top league with 32 points in 16 games.
In Sweden, too, the local championship started in the spring. After ten rounds, “Malmo” takes the second place with 20 points. In the last match with 2: 3, “Norrkoping” was lost, but two victories were won in four test games before. In May, “Malmo” won four games in six games of the Swedish Championship, played once in a draw, and suffered one failure.
“Malmo” has won the Swedish championship for the 21st time in a row, winning the last cup last year. The team also has 14 Swedish Cups and two Super Cups. Meanwhile, “Riga” is the champion of Latvia for the last three seasons and in 2018 he also won the national cup.
The Malmö team has played a total of 77 games in the UEFA Champions League in various phases, with 27 victories. Last season, the Swedish club reached the last round of the qualifying tournament in the UEFA Europa League, in which it lost 1: 3 to the Spanish team “Granada”.
“Riga” has participated in UEFA tournaments in a total of 13 games, winning four victories.
Last season, Riga lost 0: 2 to the Israeli club Maccabi in the first round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, but then lost to Glasgow’s Celtic 0: 1 in the third round of the European League qualifiers.
The two teams had not played against each other before.
About two weeks ago, the former team of “Metta” Andris Riherts took over the reins of the “Riga” team. Malmo has been run by Jonas Dāle Tomasons since last year.
The next round of the qualifying tournament will be reached by the team that wins the sum of two games.
The first round of the qualifying tournament will take place on July 6, 7 and 13, 14. The teams that lose in the first round of the qualifying tournament will continue to participate in the Eurocups in the second round of the recently established UEFA European Conference League qualifying tournament.
The UEFA Champions League Main Event will feature 32 teams, some of which will have won four qualifying rounds.
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