Valmiera FC played the second game of the European season in the UEFA Conference league 2nd round qualifier against Macedonian team Shkendija. The outcome in an entertaining game resulted in a 1:3 loss which meant an end to the Euro cup season.
Lots of back and forth action as the game began – corners on both sides, midfield battles, and beautiful attacks. What caused a result change was a free-kick – the ball was crossed into the penalty area where the opposing player used a header to make it 0:1 in the 11th minute of the game.
The game carried on with a need to score goals and Masaki Murata followed up with it. In the 25th minute an attack formed – Raimonds Krollis was in no position to score so he passed to Murata who stood in the middle of the penalty area and kicked a floater to tie the game.
However, the joy didn’t last as in the 33rd minute we made a mistake on the opposing side after a corner-kick, and the Shkendija player used it to run across the pitch and finish things off with a kick into the far lower side of the net to regain a one-goal lead.
Being down by a goal in the second half Jurgis Kalns substituted Maksims Tonisevs for Djibril Gueye in an attempt to have more offensive effort. End-to-end game with our side being slightly better, but the goals didn’t come.
In the 67th minute, Murata received a second yellow card which meant that we would be left shorthanded. Even down by a man chances and offensive pressure was big. The best chance came from Emils Birka who rang the crossbar in a moment that should have led to a tie in the game.
Just four minutes later all hope was gone – Florent Ramadani scored his team’s third goal to put the end result on the scoreboard – 1:3 the final score in the match. 2:5 on aggregate.
