In contrast to the previous season, where we had a relatively untroubled route to the Champions League group stage, and even almost made it to the Europa League knockout stages via a third-placed finish, this season was a totally different story.
Even as early as the Second Qualifying round, we struggled against FC Zürich of Switzerland, going through on penalties after drawing both legs 1-1. In the next round against Slovan Liberec, we again drew on aggregate, winning 1-0 in Rabat, before losing 3-2 in the Czech Republic, thus going through on the away goals rule. The playoff stage, however, proved too tough yet again, losing 0-1 at home to Belgian side RSC Anderlecht, and then only managing a 1-1 draw away.
In the Europa League Group stage, we were faced with familiar opposition in the form of Atletico Madrid, with the group's two other members being Metalurg Zp from Ukraine, and Dinamo Moscow. After losing the first match 0-3 home to Atletico Madrid, hope was restored with a 0-1 away win against Metalurg Zp. A 2-3 home loss to Dinamo Moscow was quickly redeemed by another 2-3 scoreline, this time in our favour, to exact revenge at their own back yard. There was still hope, even after losing again 2-0 away to Atletico Madrid, however, it was quickly extinguished with a poor 1-2 defeat at home to Metalurg Zp.
After a tough Qualifying campaign, and some mixed fortunes in the Group stage, we again bowed out of Europe in the Group stage.
The domestic tradition of a Premier League and FA Trophy double was successfully extended, with the only incident of note being the amount of goals scored, thumping in a massive 94 goals, compared to our previous record of 78. The season was again ended unbeaten, with the current unbeaten League run currently reading 51 games.
Meanwhile, the Maltese Premier League has continued on its impressive climb up the rankings, moving another 19 places up the ladder, to 88th position. Mdina Knights, on the other hand, also rose, by 20 places to 164th in the European Club Rankings.
On a final note, the Mdina Knights Stadium has been further expanded, and now houses over 20,000 spectators, while the youth academy has been thoroughly disappointing in its first two seasons, with no local prospect of note cropping up in the youth squad.
No comments:
Post a Comment