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Aron Wright - July 17, 2018
Luftetari vs Ventspils
Europa League First qualifying round
Date: Thursday, 19 July 2018
Kick-Off at 19:00 UK/ 20:00 CET
Venue: Elbasan Arena (Elbasani).
Ventspils started the double legged tie against Luftetari as favorites and put themselves in a strong position with a 5-0 win in the first leg.
It was the teenage Nigerian born striker Adeleke Akinyemi, who stole the headlines by netting 4 time. On top of that, all five goals of the match fell inside the first half and two of those are from some sloppy defense that resulted in penalties.
The Albanians are making their debut in the competition and the second leg gives them an opportunity to restore some pride before bowing out.
The first leg clash of last week resulted in a humbling 5-0 defeat is Luftetari’s first ever meeting with Ventspils.
Ventspils came to the tie on the back of some poor form. They are 5th in the Latvian league and 12 points behind the leaders. They have lost 3 games in a row and the change of competition did them a world of good.
Luftetari from Albania have not played a competitive game since May, and because of that Ventspils could be less rusty with having to play games during the summer.
Luftetari’s plan was to pack the defence and midfield in order to achieve a decent result from first leg, but things blew out of proportion with 5 goals falling inside the first 45 minutes. Two of those goals were from the penalty spot.
To sum up, this is a dead rubber and I hardly expect the side from Gjirokaster avoiding a defeat on Thursday night.
