Slovenian football champions make quarter-finals of UEFA Conference League
Slovenian football champions Celje have made it to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Conference League in a historic achievement, ousting Lugano of Switzerland in a penalty shoot-out in a goals galore return leg of the last 16.
Celje came to Thun with a slight advantage, having defeated the favoured Swiss side 1:0 at home a week ago. Regular time in the return leg ended in 4:3 for Lugano, necessitating extra time, after which the aggregate score was still 5:5, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.
However, Celje prevailed on penalties, defeating the Swiss squad 3:1 to earn what is the first ever quarter-final berth for a Slovenian club in a European club competition, the UEFA Conference League being a third-tier competition.
They will now face Italy's Fiorentina, who outplayed Greece's Panathinaikos, on 10 and 17 April. Celje manager Albert Riera said they were not going to change their style of play regardless of their next opponent.
"We're definitely up against a tough opponent, but I promise we will play our own way. You cannot guarantee we can make 100% progress by playing more defensively. We want to be Celje, even if sometimes the result is like today," Riera told Sport TV after the game.
The match was full of twists and turns, the first half was quite slow on Celje's side, but after Mario Kvesić and Aljoša Matko came on at the beginning of the second half, Celje's hopes started to rise.
The game became more determined. "We said we needed the ball and make them run. We also needed Svit Sešlar closer to the ball, because when he has the ball, things start to happen," Riera said about a change of tactic in the second half. Sešlar scored in the 40th minute.
He admitted they suffered a lot at times, that there were a lot of mistakes, but Riera said this happened to the best teams and players, while they were still a bit naive and needed experience.
"We are very happy with our promotion, now let's talk about celebrating. The boys deserved it," he added. Looking ahead, he said they were not setting limits but just trying to move forward, to improve.
Armandas Kučys, who scored a penalty in stoppage time, to keep Celje's hopes alive for extra time, said he thought it the most important penalty of his life, even though his career is not long.
"There were a lot of ups and downs in the game, but after 1:1 the feeling immediately changes because you see you can play against them. After half-time (they were 1:3 down) we told ourselves to go back on the pitch with our heads held high. And now we can celebrate."
