Tallinas “Flora” | Photo: REUTERS / Yiannis Kourtoglou
The Tallinn “Flora” team won the first point in the history of Estonian football on Thursday in the main tournaments of UEFA club competitions. In the third round of the Flora UEFA Conference League sub-group tournament, the guests fought a draw 2: 2 (1: 2) with the Cypriot team Famagusta’s Anorthosis.
Miloš Deletičs nominated the home team in the 25th minute, but three minutes later Deniss Popovičs reached 2: 0. Seven minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 0 – 5 as Henriks Ojamā finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. Ten minutes before the end of the regular time, Sapinens hit one of the opponents’ goalkeepers, played him and sent the ball to the net again – 2: 2. The Flora team continues the season with a line-up made exclusively of Estonian footballers.
In the second game of this group, the Belgian club “Gent” won the Belgrade “Partizna” with the result 1: 0 (0: 0). The only goal was scored by Sven Cums, who stood out in the 59th minute. The Ghent application did not include Darko Lemajic, a former RFS striker, who continues to heal the injury. In Group B, after three games, the leader with nine points is “Gent”, six points with “Partizan”, but one point each with “Flora” and “Anorthosis” units.
In another Conference League game, AS Roma, led by José Mourinju, was severely defeated, capitulating to the Bodo / Glimt team from Norway with the guests 1: 6 (1: 2). According to statistics company “Opta”, Mourinju played his 1008th game as a coach on Thursday and for the first time his team scored six goals. Erik Butheim and Ula Sulbaken won by two goals, but Patrick Berg and Amal William Pelegrino were disappointed at times. The Italian club was scored by Karless Peress. “Bodo” / “Glimt” in group C takes the first place with seven points, but “AS Roma” has scored one point less.
The fight in Arnhem also ended with an unexpected result, where the Dutch team “Vitesse” was 1: 0 (0: 0) superior to the English Premier League club Totenhem “Hotspur”. Maksimiliāns Viteks scored the winning goal 12 minutes before the end of the regular time. The Londoners did not play in their optimal lineup. The newly created UEFA Conference League is a third-level tournament behind the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
In the main tournament, 32 teams are divided into eight subgroups of four units each. The winner of each group will enter the second round of the elimination tournament, while the runners-up will compete in the first round of the play-off. The final is scheduled for May 25 in Tirana.
