Levadia face Estonian hurdle
Friday, July 6, 2007
Article summary
FC Levadia Tallinn represent Estonia in the UEFA Champions League this month but hope to overcome the local hoodoo against clubs from the Balkan region.
Article body
FC Levadia Tallinn will start their UEFA Champions League campaign this month with the aim of advancing at least to the second qualifying round and with any luck even further. But the Estonian champions' task will not be easy, as the first opponents are FK Pobeda from F.Y.R. Macedonia and even if they get past them, waiting in the next stage will be FK Crvena Zvezda.
Balkan problem
"We do not know anything about Pobeda but all teams from former Yugoslavian republics are obviously strong and Estonian teams traditionally suffer against them," said experienced Levadia forward Indrek Zelinski. "And even if we do manage to qualify, there are even stronger opponents waiting from the same region."
Worrying statistics
Zelinski certainly knows his history. In UEFA club competitions, Estonian clubs have played teams from former Yugoslavian republics on seven occasions and 14 matches have produced 13 defeats and one draw with ten goals scored and 51 conceded. Curiously the only draw came in 2000, when JK Tulevik Viljandi held Serbian side FK Napredak Kruševac 1-1 in the UEFA Cup. Tulevik had six months earlier been surprise runners-up in the league under the command of current Levadia coach Tarmo Rüütli, who left to join FC Flora in 2000, but it was still very much his squad that held Napredak.
Domestic dominance
Few were shocked by the European qualification of Rüütli's current team; they finished eleven points clear in 2006 and are well ahead midway through the current campaign having lost just three of their last 59 Meistriliiga games and picked up the Estonian Cup in May with a 3-0 win against JK Trans Narva. Almost unbeatable at home with a blend of promising talent and established internationals, Levadia proved their worth by beating FC Haka and FC Twente before losing to Newcastle United FC in last season's UEFA Cup, the first ever Estonian team to win two ties in a European competition.
International disappointment
They also remain the only side from their nation to reach the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round when, known as FC Levadia Maardu, they knocked out the Welsh club then called Total Network Solutions FC in 2000/01. However, their first international campaign of 2007 in the Baltic League in March ended in disappointment, bottom of their group. They will hope for better on Wednesday week in Prilep.
