June 21, 2022
With the dust barely having had time to settle after the UEFA Nations League matches brought the 2021/22 season to a conclusion, the new season starts with the traditional curtain raiser of the UEFA Champions League Preliminary Round.
Introduced for the 2018/19, this mini tournament sees the Champions of the 4 lowest ranked countries in the UEFA coefficients play semi-finals and then a final to determine the one side to progress to the First Qualifying Round of the competition. The three losers drop down to the Europa Conference Second Qualifying Round.
The matches are usually held at the ground of one of the 4 competing teams, but for the two previous years it was held on neutral territory due to Covid restrictions. This year however, the games are being played in Iceland.
The rankings used for this season are those as at the end of the 2020/21 season, which means the champions of Iceland, Estonia, Andorra and San Marino will compete in this season’s tournament, with Iceland and Estonia replacing Kosovo and the Faroe Islands from the 2021/22 qualifier. For 2023/24 the countries involved will be Iceland, North Macedonia, Montenegro and San Marino.
Unfortunately for Levadia, the exploits of Flora Tallinn in the 2021/22 Europa Conference came to late for them to avoid this lottery. Similarly, the decent results of Andorran sides in 2021/22 have seen them rise out of the bottom 4 for the first time so their 2022/23 Champions will go straight to the First Qualifying round.
The draw for the semi-finals had Levadia and San Marino side La Fiorita as the two seeded sides ( despite La Fiorita have a record of one draw and 19 losses in European matches ! ), and the draw paired probably the two strongest sides in Levadia and Vikingur to play each other.
Vikingur won the 2021 Icelandic Championship, with a run of 5 successive victories seeing them overtake Breidablik to clinch the title by one point, and they were unbeaten at home all year. This was their 6th title but their first since 1989, with their first having come way back in 1920. The club were founded in 1908, making them one of the oldest sport clubs in Iceland, and play in the Fossvogur district, south-east of the city centre of the capital Reykjavik.
Home is the 2,000 capacity Vikingsvollur, the normal colours are red and black stripes with black shorts, and unsurprisingly they are known as the Vikings.
Vikingur had no players in the most recent Iceland national squad, although 4 players received caps in friendly matches earlier in the year, namely keeper Ingvar Jonsson and midfielders Julius Magnusson, Kristall Mani Ingason and Viktor Orlygur Andrason. Danish striker Nikolaj Hansen was the league’s top scorer in 2021 with 16 goals but has only found the net three times this year, with Kristall Mani Ingason instead leading the way with 4 goals.
Other players of note are Swedish centre-back Oliver Ekroth, who last season was captain of top-flight Swedish side Degerfors, midfielder Pablo Punyed has 25 caps for El Salvador, whilst defender Kyle McLagan comes from the USA.
Vikingur’s defence of the title has not gone to plan so far. After losing 3 of their first 7 matches, a run of 4 wins on the trot has seen them move up to second place in the Besta-delid karla, albeit 8 points behind runaway leader Breidablik.
Vikingur were the best supported team in Iceland in 2021, with an average attendance of 725, and although that has increased to 936 in 2022, they are now only 5th in the home attendance table, with Breidablik having the best average of 1,586.
Vikingur’s record in European competitions is poor, with 12 defeats out of 13 matches, and just one draw ( 2-2 at home to Slovenian side Koper in 2015/16 ). However, in their last tie, a one-off qualifier against Olimpija Ljubjlana in the 2020/21 Europa League they only lost 1-2 after extra time in Slovenia.
Levadia won the 2021 Estonian championship thanks to a 2-2 draw in their final game in the snow in December against arch-rivals Flora Tallinn, when a victory for Flora would have seen them take the title instead. That match was covered by these diaries.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/12/flora-tallinn-2-2-fci-levadia-att-1023.html
One of the key players for Levadia is Georgian born striker Zakaria Beglarishvili who scored 24 goals last season and already has 8 again this year. He won one cap for Georgia but has now obtained Estonian citizenship and is qualified to play for his adopted country, but is still to be called up. Another highly influential player is attacking midfielder/forward Robert Kirss, who scored 17 league goals in 2021, and has 13 caps for Estonia.
Other members of Estonia’s most recent squad are keeper Karl Vallner ( 0 caps ), and defenders Artur Pikk ( 48 caps ) and Rasmus Peetson ( 3 caps ). In addition, eight of the rest of the Levadia squad have made appearances for the Estonian national side, namely, Bogdan Vastsuk ( 7 caps ), Frank Liivak ( 24 caps ), Brent Lepistu ( 13 caps ), Mark Oliver Roosnupp ( 8 caps ), Markus Jurgenson ( 11 caps ), Mikhel Ansalu ( 13 caps ), Ilja Antonov ( 51 caps and Maksim Podholjuzin ( 1 cap )
Although Levadia lost striker Hannes Anier in the close season, choosing to rejoin his old side Tallinna Kalev after their promotion back to the Meistriliiga, they have been strengthened by the on-loan signings of Oleksiy Khoblenko and Stem Schedryi from Ukrainian side Kryvbas. One other interesting signing was Brazilian journeyman striker Liliu, who was reported in these diaries making a substitute appearance for Peruvian side Sporting Huancayo in March 2021 !
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/03/sport-huancayo-3-0-deportivo-binacional.html
Other foreigners in the Levadia squad include lively Ghanian winger Ernest Agyiri, Italian defender Maximiliano Ugge, plus Serbian defenders Milan Mitrovic and Marko Putincanin.
Levadia come into today’s match in good form. In their most recent outing, they came back from a goal down and a red card to draw 1-1 with Flora. They sit level on points with Flora, but have played a game more. They have won 14 out 17 league games, with the only reverse coming against Flora in April.
Levadia are regular competitors in European tournaments but their last appearance in the Champions League was in 2015/16 where they were eliminated by Northern Irish side Crusaders on away goals after two draws. The year before they had crushed La Fiorita from San Marino 8-0 on aggregate, before themselves being hammered 8-1 by Sparta Prague, although at least they were able to draw the second leg 1-1. In last season’s Europa Conference they fell at the first hurdle to Dundalk, being eliminated 3-4 over two legs.
The match is being streamed live by Estonian network Soccernet, and will be available to watch on their YouTube channel. Temperature at the 21.30 local time kick-off is forecast to be around 9 degrees, with heavy rain expected.
Bet365 made Vikingur narrow favourites at 29/20, with Levadia at 17/10, with the draw at 11/5.
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