Fulham FC travel to Lithuania to play Futbolo Klubas Vetra (FK Vetra) tomorrow night with a kick off of 6pm in the Europa League 3rd Qualifying round match. Fulham are playing their first match in the competition with the Lithuanian club having to play 2 rounds (4 matches) to get to this point. They have beaten CS Grevenmacher of Luxembourg and HJK Helksinki of Finland to get to this stage.
FK were only formed in 1996 and moved to Vilnius in 2003 to play in their own 5,900 capacity stadium, They were 3rd in the Lithuanian A lyga last season to qualify for Europa League. The club are now the first Lithuanian club to get to this stage of European competition.
They are no strangers to Europe having played in the Inter-Toto cup from 2004 (beating Hibernian on aggregate) to 2007.. Their match with Legia Warsaw was abandoned due to the Polish fans causing trouble, In the next round they lost to Blackburn Rovers.
From 2008 they have competed in the UEFA/Europa cup.
Their team is made up of all home country players apart from Estonian Nikolai Mastev and the well travelled Cameroonian Betrand Ngapounou. Betrand has now played for club sides in Lithuania, Khazakstan, Romania and Russia.
Their scorers in the last leg win agianst HJK were Jevgenig Moroz, Mindaugas Grigalevicius and Algi Jankauskas.
The 2nd leg is played in West London next week. TCE predicts a good turn out from the away fans, probably made up of the large Lithuanian community now residing in London and surrounding area.
Fulham fans travelling to this game look set for a nice day with the weather sunny and warm. A pint of lager costs roughly £1.20 -only just (!!!) cheaper than the bars and pubs around Craven Cottage.
Skybet.com have Fulham as strong favourites for this match at 4/9. FK are 11/2 and the draw 11/4.
FC Sheriff Tiraspol attempt to qualify for Champions League group stages
Tonight in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League FC Sherriff (champions of Moldovan league) take on Slavia Prague (Champions of Czech league). FC Sheriff play in a very nice 14,300 capacity stadium and were the first side in Moldova to sign contracted foriegn players.
They have players from Brazil, Serbia, Georgia, Russia, Burkina Faso, Belarus, Romania, Senegal, Argentina, Togo and Latvia as well as Moldovans. They have dominated their home football since 2001 winning the league on each occasion. Since then they have tried and failed to qualify for the group stages proper. Will they manage to beat Slavia Prague??
If like TCE you like a punt especially on a Champions League Glory Glory qualifying tie skybet have the home side at 12/5, away win at 10/11 and the draw 9/4. TCE likes an outsider so is going for a half time draw and full time FK Tiraspol win which is 8/1 with Ladbrokes.
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