Slavia will be challenged by a football dwarf. St Joseph’s will fly to Prague from Gibraltar | Football | Sports | Prague Gossip
Slavia footballers will face the St Joseph’s team from Gibraltar in the 2nd preliminary round of the European Conference League. Last season’s third team of the top Gibraltar league defeated Northern Ireland’s Larne 1:0 in the rematch of the opening preliminary round and advanced to the next stage against the Czech vice-champion thanks to a home goalless draw.
Slavia Prague will start the doubleheader on Thursday, July 21 at the opponent’s field. The rematch is scheduled for a week later in Eden.
The second promotion in history
St Joseph’s is Gibraltar’s oldest club, celebrating 110 years this year. The biggest success is winning the league title in 1995/1996. There were once thirteen matches in European clubs. In the past, the traditional Gibraltar club only managed to progress through Kosovo’s Pristina in 2019. St Joseph’s were soon relegated after a heavy 0-10 loss in a doubleheader against Scotland’s Rangers.
Challenger Slavia relies mainly on domestic players and Spaniards. But we also find several foreigners in the lineup. The Englishman Ross Fitzsimons, who has extensive experience in the second and third English leagues, appears in the goal. The Argentinean Federico Martín Villar also appears on the roster, who, in addition to competing in his homeland, also tried to start work in Bulgaria in the Spartak Varna jersey. Lucas Olmos is also of the same nationality. On the contrary, he tried to establish himself in the lower Spanish competitions.
Representative on the tip
In the attack, the club relies on a native of Tanzania, Adi Yussuf, who has over 250 games in the lower English leagues and two starts for the national team. Twenty-nine-year-old Ishmail Kofi Antwi from Ghana joins him at the tip. He, on the other hand, spent the last ten years in the lower leagues in Spain and wore, for example, the jersey of the second reserve team of Atletico Madrid.