Yesterday, in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League Round of 16, Armandas Kučys and his team, NK Celje, secured a 1-0 victory over Lugano, while Edgaras Utkus and Cercle Brugge faced a heavy 0-3 defeat against Polish champions Jagiellonia.
In the previous round, NK Celje defeated the Cypriot side APOEL 4-2 on aggregate, with 22-year-old Lithuanian striker Armandas Kučys playing a crucial role by scoring three of the four goals that helped Celje advance to the Round of 16.
Celje’s opponents today were last season’s Swiss Super League runners-up Lugano FC. They currently sit in fourth place in the Swiss league table and finished the UEFA Conference League phase in sixth place with 13 points.
Celje started the match strong and took the lead in the 23rd minute, with Tamar Svetlin scoring his third goal of this Conference League campaign and his second in the knockout stage.
Although Celje was outshot and had a lower expected goals (xG) tally, they managed to hold on for the 1-0 win. Next week, they’ll travel to Switzerland for the second leg. Armandas Kučys started the match and was substituted in the 84th minute.
The winner of this matchup will face Fiorentina or Panathinaikos in the quarter-finals. Panathinaikos won 3-2 at home against Fiorentina in the first leg.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian center-back Edgaras Utkus and his team, Cercle Brugge, will have a significant challenge ahead next week after suffering a 0-3 loss in the first leg.
Cercle Brugge finished the Conference League phase in eighth place, which led them to the Round of 16. Their opponents, Jagiellonia, finished ninth in the league phase but qualified for the knockout stage after beating Serbian side TSC 6-2 on aggregate.
The match was scoreless at halftime, but in the second half, Cercle Brugge midfielder Abu Francis received a second yellow card and was sent off, leaving his team with ten players. Jagiellonia capitalized on this advantage and scored three goals in nine minutes. Afimico Pululu, the top scorer in the Conference League, converted a penalty kick, followed by a goal from Taras Romanczuk. The final blow to Cercle Brugge came when Pululu scored in spectacular fashion with a bicycle kick.
Edgaras Utkus, who played the entire match, will face a tough task in the second leg at home in Brugge. The winner of this tie will advance to the quarter-finals to face either Vitoria Guimaraes or Real Betis, who played to a draw in their first leg.
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