A champion team for… three days
By winning on the Grobina pitch on Sunday (0-2), RFS Riga officially became champion of Latvia, a competition which is played over the calendar year. Riga FC will no longer be able to return on the final day next weekend. This is the third title for the club which had already won the Cup the week before (on penalties against Auda). Suffice to say that the champagne flowed by the liter. In the staff, we hope that the players will not have lost too much influence in the double festivities.
Pay attention to the lesson of the Buffalos
If the Anderlecht residents look down on the RFS, it is because they will not have listened to the Ghent lesson. Three years ago, Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s men did not laugh to eliminate the Latvians in the Conference League preliminary. It was in the summer of 2021, Riga created a sensation by leading 0-2 at the break in Ghent during the first leg. Carried by Tarik Tissoudali in the second half, the Buffalos had equalized. They had to seek their qualification the following week by winning with difficulty in Riga with the only goal falling in the 73rd minute of play.
Vanhaezebrouck’s flop will not be there
Two names are familiar in the core of the RFS: goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa (ex-Ostend where he was fired after his participation in a lockdown party) and striker Darko Lemajic (ex-Ghent). But the first is uncertain after coming out at the end of the match on Sunday and the second is injured. Even if he was a flop for the Buffalos, who bought him for €900,000 in 2021 after the confrontation with the RFS, Lemajic scored ten goals this season. His package is a loss for the local team. The biggest offensive danger will be Latvian international Janis Ikaunieks, 26 goals and 11 assists this season in all competitions. At 29, he flew through the championship after experiences in Metz and Greece.
Fired for organizing a lockdown party, the former Ostend goalkeeper wins his case
Ask Dries Mertens: the grown-ups tremble
This is the second time in its history that the RFS has participated in the group stage of a European Cup. First there was the Conference League two years ago where the Latvians achieved the feat of holding a draw at home against Fiorentina, future finalist, and Istanbul Basaksehir. And, this season, a notch higher in the Europa League, they are not ridiculous either. For their only home match so far, they snatched a draw against Dries Mertens’ Galatasaray. The former Devil scored the first of the two Turkish goals but Riga managed to come back to 2-2 in the second half. A fortnight ago, the team also held up well in Frankfurt, only conceding the only goal of the match ten minutes from time.
Annoyed supporters, like those of the Union
A club founded only nineteen years ago and among the Latvian elite for good since 2015, RFS Riga plays in a tiny stadium with 1,000 seats. For the European Cup, it is forced to relocate to the capital’s large venue: the Skonto Stadium and its 8,500 seats. A short move in terms of distance but which annoys the supporters. The venue is usually used by arch-rival Riga FC. A problem that Anderlecht knows having had to share its Lotto Park several times with the Union in recent months.
The annual budget already paid by UEFA
Financially, the RFS is laughing. The club operates with an annual budget of five million €. A sum already reached in UEFA bonuses thanks to participation in the group stage of the Europa League. Between the preliminaries, the draw against Galatasaray and the qualification bonus for the final phase, the Latvians are already guaranteed to receive more than five million. The RSCA’s budget is more than ten times greater than that of its opponent this Thursday.
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