Can a team that led 3-0 in the first leg miss out on reaching the Europa League in the next match?
The second leg of the playoff involving Albert Riera’s team went all the way to late VAR decisions and extra time.
In this match, the sequence that produced the turnaround was as important as the final score.
3-line summary
1. Riera’s team failed to protect its 3-0 advantage from the first leg.
2. Plzeň forced extra time with a late VAR penalty.
3. Riera’s Champions League plans remain just plans.
The Second Leg in Which the 3-0 Advantage Collapsed
Albert Riera is described as the former manager of German club Eintracht Frankfurt. He led his new club, Serbian football club Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade), against Viktoria Plzeň in the Europa League playoffs.
According to SPORT1, after winning 3-0 in the first leg, Zvezda lost 1-5 to Plzeň in the second leg and failed to qualify for the Europa League. Given how significant the pre-match advantage was, the result reads as even more dramatic. However, the fact that this keyword was observed in the German search market does not mean that the match was held in Germany or that the media outlet is based in Germany.
Plzeň was introduced as the home team in this match. What readers should remember is not ‘a single goal that overturned 3-0,’ but that several scenes—including a second-half dismissal and officiating decisions that continued into extra time—combined to produce the result.
After the Second-Half 53rd-Minute Dismissal, a Late Decision Sent the Match to Extra Time
Plzeň took the lead through Prince Kwabena Adu’s goal in the 8th minute, and Zvezda equalized 3 minutes later through Mirko Ivanić. In the 51st minute, Plzeň missed a penalty. At that point, the first-leg gap still remained.
The flow changed significantly in the 53rd minute. Zvezda’s Osman Bukari was sent off after lightly striking an opposing player in the face. Plzeň moved ahead through Denis Višinský’s penalty in the 58th minute, and Patrik Hrošovský added another goal in the 63rd minute. SPORT1 reported that, at this score, Riera’s team could still preserve its place in European competition.
The moment that sent the match to extra time came in stoppage time. Plzeň goalkeeper Florian Wiegele came forward for a corner kick but was held by a defender, and after a lengthy VAR review, Plzeň was awarded its third penalty. Christophe Kabongo converted it.
In extra time, David Krčík’s header crossed the goal line by a very narrow margin in the 96th minute, and goal-line technology signaled the goal. The possibility that an opposing player had struck someone with an elbow was also subject to a VAR review, but it was not deemed a foul. The final score of 5-1 may look one-sided, but in reality, this was a match shaped by late decisions and the detailed incidents of extra time.
The Conference League Remained After Europa League Elimination
With this defeat, Riera and Zvezda striker Marko Arnautović were eliminated from the competition to qualify for the Europa League. That does not mean the club’s entire European campaign is over. SPORT1 reported that, because Zvezda had reached the playoffs, it automatically secured a place in the Conference League.
Therefore, the team failed to reach the Europa League, but the Conference League stage remains. The two competitions cannot be regarded as the same achievement. Riera’s team still has a European competition ahead, and this defeat changed the atmosphere surrounding the starting point of that campaign.
Riera’s Remarks Concern the Team’s Plans, Not the Result
At the post-match press conference, Riera emphasized that he had delivered only one message to the players before the match. He said that the players were not machines and indicated that he would take the criticism upon himself. It was an attitude that refused to place the direction of responsibility solely on individual players after the defeat.
At the same time, he said that the team needed to learn and that he was preparing a team capable of growing to the level of the Champions League. He added that players who did not meet that level would have to leave. However, these are plans and intentions expressed after the match. The facts confirmed in this match are elimination from the Europa League and qualification for the Conference League.
The central point of this playoff was the starting point of a 3-0 first-leg advantage. But the contest changed within the second leg, as the second-half dismissal, VAR penalty, and goal-line technology followed one another. Riera presented his plans for the next team through his remarks, but the outcome those plans will produce cannot be determined from this match alone.
References
Tags #알베르트리에라 #AlbertRiera #츠르베나즈베즈다 #로터슈테른베오그라드 #빅토리아플젠 #유로파리그 #유로파리그플레이오프 #콘퍼런스리그 #VAR #골라인기술 #마르코아르나우토비치 #축구경기결과