MFK Skalica - A Slovakian Adventure

  • Thread starter Thread starter MPH93
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 148
  • Views Views 33K
View attachment 171054

2020/21 Champions League Second Qualifying Round draw

View attachment 171053

We were in familiar territory as we took our places as UEFA HQ ahead of the latest Champions League qualifying round draw. We've increased in the co-efficients over the past few seasons so hopefully that will give us an easier tie.

View attachment 171052

So we've got a fairly easy tie as we will play EB/Streymur over two legs for a place in the Third Qualifying Round. They're a team from the Faroe Islands with a one star reputation so hopefully we'll be able to establish a big lead in the first leg before resting key players for the second leg ahead of the domestic season starting.
​
 
Great story, hopefully you can get another good run in the Champions League and also Rony Lopes as a signing shows how far you have taken the team and should excel in Slovakia
 
Really loving the story.

Love the less famous clubs/leagues and how they change how you play the game.
 
Been without an internet connection for the past two weeks. Updates to follow shortly!
 
ninjaskill said:
Great story, hopefully you can get another good run in the Champions League and also Rony Lopes as a signing shows how far you have taken the team and should excel in Slovakia
Click to expand...

Cheers mate! Hopefully more signings of that ilk to come!

Gaius Baltar said:
Really loving the story.

Love the less famous clubs/leagues and how they change how you play the game.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's been a massive difference from my usual saves. Gives you something to work towards!
 
View attachment 164619

July 2020

View attachment 164618

So I've decided to take on the Slovakia job in an attempt to fast track the country's progression, as well as trying to get the big names of Slovakian football on my side to potentially sign them for MFK Skalica in the future.

View attachment 164617

View attachment 164616

A fairly low position in the world rankings to start off with so hopefully that will improve in the next few months. With teams like Iran, Morocco, Jamaica and DR Congo above us, it should be a speedy path towards the top!

--

*Instead of updates game-by-game for the internationals, I'm going to do an end of season review so to not get distracted away from the main part of the story.*​
 
View attachment 164560

2020/21 Pre-Season update

Transfers

View attachment 164559

In

View attachment 164558
Julien Ngoy – Stoke (End of Contract)

View attachment 164557
Rony Lopes – AS Monaco (End of Contract)

View attachment 164556
Jozef Nagy – Nitra (£70,000)

View attachment 164555
Srdjan Stepanovic – Radnicki (£100,000)

View attachment 164554
Cheick Tiote – Unattached (Free)

View attachment 164553
Viktor Luptak – Arsenal (loan) *Forgot to screenshot attributes*

View attachment 164552
Giuseppe Aiello – Grosseto (£75,000)

View attachment 164551
Neto – Santos (£1,600,000)

View attachment 164550
Erik Forsberg – IFK Mariehamn (£240,000)

What a summer of incoming transfers! The big one is quite obviously Viktor Luptak, who returns to MFK Skalica on a season-long loan from Arsenal. I’ve been looking to bring him back on a temporary deal since he left so I’m delighted he’ll be pulling the green shirt of MFK Skalica on again for another season. Elsewhere, the arrival of Rony Lopes and Cheick Tiote will be a great boost to the first team squad as they have both played at an elite level and will only improve the quality we already have. The remainder of the transfers are young players that have been brought in to boost our youth system, as well as a couple to push their way into the first team to sell on for profit. The two big ones to watch out for are Giuseppe Aiello and Neto.

Out

James Maddison – Zaglebie Lubin (£800,000)
Jonas Lindstrom – Marseille (£775,000)
11 players released
2 loaned out

So, as you can see, we saw two departures for a combined fee of around £1.5million. The first to leave was James Maddison, who left for pastures new in Poland. With the arrival onto the scene of Tupazinho and Kiril Aleksandrov, he was being forced onto the bench so it made sense to cash in. The other departure was Jonas Lindstrom, who joined Marseille after they met his release clause. This was a big disappointment for me as he had been playing well and had just been offered a new deal before the French side swooped to sign the Swedish youngster. Onto the next one!

View attachment 164549

In other news…

View attachment 164548
Tupazinho has signed a four-year extension with the Club after making the step up to the starting XI in recent months. He’s on a small wage with no minimum fee release clause so hopefully he’ll stay for at least two years and boost his value.

View attachment 164547
Another contract extension signed over the summer and this time it was defensive midfielder Alan Black. Although he’s not really performed on the pitch, my scouts still rate him highly so will likely be sent out on loan in the near future.

View attachment 164546
Four of my players will be at the 2020 Olympics representing their respective countries. Two first team players, Andrea Sicuro and Black, will miss most of August while Javier Vallejo, currently out on loan, and Edgar Pichardo will be representing Mexico in the prestigious tournament.

View attachment 164545
And finally, we’ve been made odds on favourites to pick up the league title again in the upcoming season. Our nearest challengers are Michalovce, so we’ll have to be careful when we play them as everyone views them as our biggest threat. Elsewhere, the European places are up for grabs with six teams in a similar position.​
 
View attachment 164489

2020/21 Champions League Second qualifying round

View attachment 1037588

First Leg

View attachment 164488

Our first competitive game of the season and we made easy work of the Faroe Islands side to put one foot in the Third qualifying round. It was 3-0 at half time with goals from Andrea Sicuro, Jonas Lindstrom (game played before he left) and Aleksander Solli giving us a strong hold on the game. Felix Pascual and Adam Le Fondre completed the rout in the second half to cap an impressive display against the minnows.

Second leg

View attachment 164487

With us having a 5-0 lead from the first leg, we rested a few of the key players with the league campaign getting underway and the younger players repaid the faith by matching the score from the first leg. Rony Lopes and Leon Hall got the scoring underway before a second half hat-trick from Josh Bull secured a 10-0 aggregate win.

In other news...

View attachment 164480

First choice left back Jonas Heymans will miss around six months of the season due to a broken foot sustained in the league game against Trnava. A massive loss!​
 
View attachment 164479

2020/21 Champions League Third qualifying round draw

View attachment 164478

So after the demolition of EB in the previous leg, we were now one of the seeded teams in the draw. Probably for the first time since I've joined!

View attachment 164477

Qarabag FK Agdam stand between us and the Champions League play-off and they will be a difficult opponent having reached the Group Stage a few seasons back. The first leg will be in Slovakia before a trip to Azerbaijan to decide who will progress. I'll look to keep it tight at the back in the first leg to avoid any away goals before starting quickly in the return fixture to allow us the away goal advantage.​
 
View attachment 164458

2020/21 Champions League Third Qualifying round

View attachment 1037625

First Leg

View attachment 164456

Again, we put in a dominant display at home to give us a great chance of heading through to the play-offs. Adam Le Fondre and Viktor Luptak gave us a 2-0 lead at half time before Le Fondre notched his second midway through the second half to give us a three goal cushion. Samuel Armenteros reduced the deficit for the team from Azerbaijan, but we managed to hold on and take a 3-1 victory into the return fixture.

Second Leg

View attachment 164455

Another great performance from MFK Skalica to secure a place in the play-off following a 5-1 aggregate win against Qarabag. We wanted to start quick and were rewarded when Paul May opened the scoring in the first minute. Following the early goal, we sat back and defended our lead knowing that Qarabag would have to score three goals to send the tie to extra time. With the clock ticking towards the 85th minute, we reverted back to our usual style of play and stole a goal at the death as Tupazinho bagged to complete the scoring.​
 
View attachment 164454

2020/21 Champions League Play-off draw

View attachment 164453

Again, we were one of the seeded teams so I was hopeful of a lesser side that would almost guarantee us a passage into the Group Stage and get another big windfall into the Club. Here's what we got...

View attachment 164452

So we've been drawn against Serbian side FK Vojvodina Novi Sad in the play-off. I'd say it would be around medium difficulty as there was tougher and weaker sides in the draw. Like before, we've been drawn at home first so we'll be looking to keep it tight and not concede any away goals in the first leg.

Full draw

View attachment 164451​
 
View attachment 164198

2020/21 Champions League Play-Off

View attachment 1037903

First Leg

View attachment 164197

What a game! A five-goal thriller to set up the second leg nicely with us coming out with a narrow lead. Things started bad for us as we were 2-0 down inside 15 minutes after Bard Finne's brace gave the away side the lead they deserved following our poor start. However, it was soon 2-2 with Viktor Luptak and an own goal from Jovica Vasilic levelling the scores. It was a close contest throughout but we managed to sneak the win thanks to Adam Le Fondre's goal nine minutes from time to set up an intriguing second leg in Serbia.

Second leg

View attachment 164196

So it was a bad night at Vojvodina as we exited the competition on away goals! Andrea Sicuro gave us an early lead in the second minute to make it 4-2 on aggregate before Bard Finne reduced the deficit late in the first half. The aggregate score was levelled in the 50th minute when Aleksander Stanisavljevic grabbed a goal from close range and the score remained the same until the final whistle to confirm a frustrating exit from the prestigious competition. Into the Europa League, then!

View attachment 164195

View attachment 164194

View attachment 164193​
 
View attachment 164192

2020/21 Europa League Group Stage draw

View attachment 164191

So with the disappointment of the away goals knockout against Vojvodina behind us, it was time to find out who we'd be drawn against in the Europa League group stage. With our co-officients improving in recent years, we'd been put in pot three so we was hopeful of a kinder draw.

View attachment 164190

This was the situation we were faced with heading into the pot three balls being drawn. The main ones to avoid were Group A and Group C, while Group D would have been ideal...

View attachment 164189

A fairly decent draw for MFK Skalica. Hibernian will be there for the taking so we're hoping of six points against them when we meet in Slovakia and Scotland. The others are hard to judge as both have been in the Champions League in recent years, but we'll give it our best shot.

View attachment 164188View attachment 164187View attachment 164186View attachment 1037916​
 
View attachment 164042

2020/21 Europa League Group Stage

View attachment 164041

Matchday One

View attachment 164040

A positive start to the campaign as we manage to avoid defeat in Ukraine. We dominated possession and had more shots, but I'd say it was a fair result and the main positive is that we didn't lose. Olexandr Tereschenko opened the scoring for Dnipro early on before we were reduced to ten men shortly before half time when Sebastian Coates was shown a straight red card. We rallied round after the dismissal and got a deserved equaliser in the 56th minute through Rony Lopes to secure a share of the points.

Group K

View attachment 164039

Monchengladbach beat Hibernian in the other game in the group so the German side currently top the table after one game. We welcome the Scottish side to the Skalica Stadium in the next matchday so hopefully we'll be able to pick up our first win then.​
 
View attachment 164038
2020/21 Europa League Group Stage

View attachment 164037

Matchday Two

View attachment 164036

Our first win in the group stage in our second attempt! Hibernian took a shock lead in the seventh minute through Stevie May before Viktor Luptak quickly levelled up the score. Following the two early strikes, it was an end-to-end game with both sides creating chances to win the game until Adam Le Fondre settled the game in the 73rd minute with an overhead kick to seal the three points.

Group K

View attachment 164035

Gladbach continue their good start to the Europa League with a win against Dnipro to keep them at the top of the group. We're now three points clear of the Ukrainian side ahead of the matchday three trip to Germany!​
 
View attachment 164030

2020/21 Europa League Group Stage

View attachment 164029

Matchday Three

View attachment 164028

What a performance! We somehow managed to pick up the three points against Gladbach with a back-to-the-wall performance after being dominated for the majority of the 90 minutes. Rony Lopes put us into the lead in the 30th minute before that was quickly cancelled out by Dudu. We then managed to hold off further attacks from the German side to head into half time at 1-1. We were fast out of the blocks after the restart and scored the all-important goal in the 47th minute through Andrea Sicuro to secure the three points!

Group K

View attachment 164027

The fantastic win at the Skalica Stadium sees us move to the top of the group, replacing Gladbach. We're only a point ahead of them and three ahead of Dnipro, who beat Hibernian in the other group game. Next up, the return fixture in Germany...​
 
View attachment 162027

2020/21 Europa League Group Stage

View attachment 162026

Matchday Four

View attachment 162025

The impressive European run continues! It was a tight contest in Germany but we managed to edge it with a scoreline of 2-1 in our favour. The first half was quite boring with hardly any chances before the game kicked into life in the second half. Paul May put Skalica into a 1-0 lead two minutes after the restart before Reinaldo Lenis levelled for Gladbach shortly after. Following the two goals, it was a midfield battle between the two sides until youngster Elvind Fossum popped up in the 89th minute to secure the three points.

Group K

View attachment 162024

That win keeps us top of the group and sees us qualify for the knockout rounds with two games to spare! It's a great achievement for the Club and hopefully this will allow us to push on and achieve further European success in the years to come.

View attachment 162022​
 
View attachment 152104

2020/21 Europa League Group Stage

View attachment 152103

Matchday Five

View attachment 152102

With qualification already secured, we mixed the team up and played some of our back-up players and, surprisingly, we managed to pack up the three points. In a game that Dnipro dominated, Felix Pascual grabbed the winner shortly before half time to keep us at the top of the group and put us in a good position ahead of the final game against Hibernian.

Group K

View attachment 152101

As previously mentioned, qualification to the knockout rounds was confirmed in matchday four so the win gave us an unassailable lead at the top and first place in the group was finalised. Now to do finish on a high in Scotland in matchday six... ​
 
View attachment 152087

2020/21 Europa League Group Stage

View attachment 152085

Matchday Six

View attachment 152084

What a great way to end the group stage! It was a five-star showing from MFK Skalica and, although the stats suggest it was a close game, we dominated throughout. Rony Lopes got the ball rolling early on before Calum Ferguson equalised for Hibernian. A brace from Adam Le Fondre and one from Andrea Sicuro extended our lead heading into half time and then Lopes notched his second of the game in the second half to ensure we finished the group stage unbeaten.

Group K

View attachment 152082

So it will be Gladbach that will be joining us in the knockout stages after they overcame Dnipro to finish in second in Group K. It's a pretty impressive record from ourselves as we entered the competition in disappointing fashion and have bounced back in great form!​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top