MFK Skalica - A Slovakian Adventure

[MPH93]

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2020/21 Europa League First Knockout Round draw

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High on confidence, we headed to UEFA HQ to find out who we would be facing in the next round of the competition. Teams from the Champions League would be entering at this stage as well so fingers were crossed ahead of the draw...

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So it's a match up with Schalke in the First Knockout Round with the first leg being played in Germany. Ideally, I'd like us to grab a minimum of one away goal before defending the lead in the return leg. Either way, it's going to be two tough fixtures!

Full draw

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[MPH93]

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2020/21 Mid-season update

Squad Overview

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Key Players

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Carabina (Goalkeeper)
The tall shot stopper has been a rock at the back in the opening stages of the 2020/21 season with him keeping 14 clean sheets in his 34 games so far, an impressive return! He's been able to maintain an average rating of 7.04 throughout the aforementioned games as well so hopefully that level of performance will continue. The only problem is his contract expires at the end of the season and he's not interested in extending it yet!

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Leon Hall (Defender)
A surprise entry in the list considering our defensive options, Leon Hall has stepped up his game this season from back-up to first team due to a number of injuries. The Academy graduate has filled in at left back and has so far performed excellently, scoring once and claiming six assists in his 22 games this campaign. His average rating is 7.66, which is quite high for a full back.

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Rony Lopes (Midfielder)
The standout star of the 2020/21 campaign, Rony is undoubtedly the signing of my career having joined on a free in the summer. He's leading the way in the average rating column with an impressive 7.94 from his 29 games so far, notching 14 goals and assisting 12 in those matches. Hopefully a big club hasn't noticed his form and he'll be able to stay with us for a few more seasons!

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Andrea Sicuro (Forward)
The final player in our four to stand out and it's Australian striker Andrea Sicuro. Our strikers have been rotated heavily this season to keep fitness high and he's returned 10 goals in his 13 league appearances up to the mid-season break. Maintaining an average rating of 7.80, his record at the Club is simply fantastic with 34 goals in 58 appearances!

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It's been an easy ride so far with us remaining unbeaten at the half way stage in the league. We drew three of our opening six games and then won our next 13 games to top the league with 51 points from 19 games, 16 points clear of our nearest rivals. Another impressive stat is that we've scored nearly 50 goals and only conceded 15 so hopefully that record will continue through to May!

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A cup competition that now doesn't matter to the board, we decided to play youngsters in the games and it's paid off so far. We scraped through Second Division side Poprad on penalties before notching up victories against Vrable and Bardejov in the Second and Third Round respectively.

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A disappointing campaign for us as we expected to reach the Group Stage. We strolled through the early qualifying rounds against teams from the Faroe Islands and Azerbaijan before coming up short against Serbian side Vojvodina. Hopefully we'll make the Group Stage next season to bring in more revenue!

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A great response to the Champions League exit as we topped our Europa League group ahead of German side Gladbach. We face another German team in the First Knockout Round with us travelling to Schalke for the first leg in February.

In other news...

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It was a clean sweep in the league awards with three MFK Skalica players filling the top three places in the First Division Player of the Year award. Rony Lopes took home the award with Andrea Sicuro and the now-departed Jonas Lindstrom finishing in third place.

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Next up is loanee Viktor Luptak, who has won one award and named runner-up in another. First, he was named as Slovakian Young Player of the Year before being named in second place for the Slovakian Player of the Year award!

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To cap off the awards, Rami Makela was named runner-up in the Finnish U21 Player of the Year award behind former MFK Skalica midfielder Lindstrom, who is now with Marseille.

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Two contracts were extended recently with Aleksander Solli and youngster Yusuf Sezer both signed new deals to keep them at the Club until June 2023.

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And finally, our training facilities will be upgraded over the next 12 months as we look to step up our game to attract the better players in the future!​

 

[MPH93]

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2020/21 Winter Transfer Window update

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So it was a busy January for all at MFK Skalica, here's what happened...

In

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We made one permanent signing over the course of the Winter Transfer Window with Sinan Bytyqi joining for a small fee from Rangers. Originally, the deal was supposed to happen in the summer but we decided to pay the low fee so that the Austrian midfielder would be able to leave the Scottish club immediately. A decent addition to the squad.

Future Transfers

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So let's start with the bad news before moving in to the positive stuff. Our excellent goalkeeper Carabina will leave the Club in the summer after agreeing to join Schalke once his contract expires. We were able to enter negotiations late on but couldn't strike a deal and the deal was done. Hopefully we'll be able to get some compensation from it!

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Keeping with the theme of departures and two clubs were after Kiril Aleksandrov but we rejected both offers. Some big money being thrown about as well!

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The above three players will join in the summer on a free transfer following the expiration of their current contracts. Etrit Berisha (Lazio), Muhamed Besic (Villareal) and Dimitri Payet (Saint-Etienne) are all 30+ and will add that vital experience to the Club as we look to move ourselves onto another level on the European stage.​

 

[MPH93]

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2020/21 Europa League First Knockout Round

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First Leg

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I wanted at least one away goal but I wasn't expecting that! It was a very even game at the Veltins Arena with both sides having an even amount of possession. Jonas Heymans made his return from injury and opened the scoring within three minutes before Schalke's Ali Azizi levelled the score in the 29th minute. Man of the Match Rony Lopes popped up just after half time to restore our lead and then Adam Le Fondre struck in the 93rd minute to establish a two-goal advantage ahead of the second leg in Slovakia.

Second Leg

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Get in! In an unexpected result, we've managed to reach the Second Knockout Round of the Europa League after the 1-0 win at the Skalica Stadium secured a 4-1 aggregate victory. Silvan Widmer was the unfortunate Schalke defender that scored the own goal to knock the German side out and we can now look forward to another big tie in the next round!​

 

[MPH93]

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2020/21 Europa League Second Knockout Round draw

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After our excellent performance over the two legs against Schalke, we were once again in a confident mood ahead of the Second Knockout Round draw. It was new territory for us as it was the first time we had reached this stage so we were open to any team!

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A great draw for MFK Skalica as we were drawn against European giants Ajax in the Second Knockout Round. They're a team we've looked up to in the past with their philosophy and youth system so it will be a great experience to test ourselves against the Dutch side. Again, the first leg will be played away from home so hopefully we'll be able to nick an away goal or two!​

 

[MPH93]

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2020/21 Europa League Second Knockout Round

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First Leg

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I was hoping for a repeat of the Schalke performance but we got the opposite of that as we were hammered 3-0 at the Amsterdam Arena. Although the stats may suggest differently, we were dominated throughout and were lucky to not lose by six or seven. Dorin Rotariu and Bas Dost scored in the first half to establish a two-goal lead before captain Davy Klaassen notched Ajax's third late on to put one foot in the Quarter Final.

Second Leg

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A much better display from us after the disaster in Holland but it wasn't enough to pull the tie back in our favour. A close first half saw both teams exchange chances before the deadlock was broken in the 55th minute. Viktor Luptak was the man who scored our goal from close range as we gained brief hope until we were brought crashing back to earth with a double whammy. First, Leon Hall was sent off and then Luc Castaignos compounded our misery five minutes later to knock us out of the Europa League.​

 

[MPH93]

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2020/21 Youth Intake

Squad Overview

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Once again, it was a disappointing intake at the Club as the best player was only rated two stars. We're working hard behind-the-scenes to improve our stature and the youth department is one of the areas we want to improve drastically. Hopefully that will mean we'll bring better players through in the future!

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In other news...

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Our fantastic undefeated streak came to an end as we were beaten 1-0 by Trencin. The streak occurred the past two seasons and lasted up to the end of March 2021 so it's an impressive record. Let's hope we can start another one soon!

And finally...

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The Skalica Stadium will be expanded by November of this year as Chairman Peter Bartos wants to increase the capacity to just over 11,000. When it was first built, it held just under 9,000 and we were regularly selling out our European games so the expansion means more £££ for us!​

 

[dporter8999]

Have just read this in full and am thoroughly enjoying the read!

Glad to see that even though you are bringing in experienced big players, you are still finding room to use ylur young lads!

 

[Dafs95]

One of the best reads so far looking forward for more