In another Subgroup A match, “Fiorentina” of Florence defeated “Hearts” of Edinburgh with the result 3:0 (2:0).
In subgroup A, after three games, the Turkish club has seven points, the Italian team has four points, the Scottish team has three points, and the Latvian team has two points.
In the beginning of the game, the Istanbul team attacked more, but in the 17th minute, RFS got to a standard situation, which was played well, but after Tomislav Saric’s shot, the ball flew past the “Başakşehir” goal.
On the other hand, in the 24th minute, Emerson Deusleisan ran into the opponent’s penalty area and tried to pass to the front of the goal, but the pass flew too high and did not find the addressee.
Towards the end of the first half, in the 37th minute, Pavel Šteinbor saved RFS from a lost goal. In the last five minutes, the Latvian team also tried to create counter-attacks, but RFS did not get any decent scoring opportunities.
In the 56th minute, after Kevin Friesenbichler, who went on the field only in the second half, Andrejs Iličs made a single pass against the opponent’s goalkeeper, whose sent ball hit the crossbar, and the result remained unchanged.
In the 60th minute, the first yellow card was earned by Tomas Šimkovičs, but a minute later the opponent’s midfielder Mahmuts Tekdemirs also received a yellow “patch”.
As a result of an unfortunate episode, Šimkovičs got the second yellow card, leaving the people of Riga in the minority when there were still 20 minutes left until the end of the game.
In the 81st minute, Ilic was replaced by defender Vitaly Maksimenko, and in the 85th minute, Denis Rakel entered the field instead of Jovan Vlalukin.
With less than two minutes to go in regulation time, RFS were awarded a corner kick which resulted in a shot on goal, but the Istanbul goalkeeper remained unbeaten.
During the compensation, Saric was replaced by Artūrs Zjuzins. Steinbor and opponent football player Bertrand Traore were also given yellow cards, but this did not change the outcome of the game.
In this game, the RFS team could not have the head coach of the Riga team, Viktors Moroz, who was sent off in the previous match. Moroza was replaced by assistant head coach Vladimir Zhavoronkov.
In another Group A match in Edinburgh, local Hearts take on Fiorentina.
RFS debuted in the group tournament with an unexpected draw 1:1 against “Fiorentina”, but in the second game at home with 0:2, they recognized the superiority of “Hearts”. On the other hand, Istanbul footballers convincingly won both matches – 4:0 in Edinburgh against “Hearts” and 3:0 at home against “Fiorentina”.
After this match, RFS will visit Istanbul and Edinburgh on October 13 and 27, but in the last match of the group tournament, they will play a duel with “Fiorentina” players in Riga.
By entering the group stage, RFS is guaranteed at least 3.3 million euros by UEFA.
RFS is the second Latvian team in history to enter the UEFA club tournament subgroups. Among the Latvian clubs, only “Ventspils” had previously played in the group tournament of the European club competition. 13 years ago, Kurzemnieki continued the season in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League after failing to pass the play-off round of the UEFA Champions League qualification.
The UEFA Conference League is the third-tier club competition in Europe, after the Champions League and the Europa League. In May, the Italian team “AS Roma” was crowned the first champion of the tournament in Tirana.
In the 2022/2023 season, the final will take place in the Czech capital, Prague.
