By Eden Roitfarb and Yossi Medina
The Europa Conference League group stage is back once again, with 32 teams starting their journey to the final in Athens.
Lille opened with comfortable win
The 2023-24 Conference League group stage officially kicked off on Wednesday afternoon, fittingly with a Group A encounter, as Lille welcomed Slovenian side Olimpija Ljubljana to northern France.
After a goalless first 40 minutes, Lille’s talented Icelandic midfielder Hakon Haraldsson was pushed in the box by Agustin Doffo.
Canadian Jonathan David converted from the penalty spot - the group stage’s first goal of the season, and presumably not David’s last.
Yusuf Yazici made it 2-0 deep in stoppage time with a brilliant dribble and finish.
⚜️ Jonathan David scores the first goal of the 2023/24 Europa Conference League season 👊@LOSC_EN || #UECL pic.twitter.com/kvdzF4LpMo
— UEFA Europa Conference League (@europacnfleague) September 20, 2023
Legia Warsaw shock Aston Villa
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa are among the favourites to win the Conference League this season, but their opening game did not quite go as expected.
Legia Warsaw’s huge crowd gave his team a warm welcome.
Pawel Wszolek scored first for the Polish side, before Jhon Duran pulled Aston Villa level.
Goals from Ernest Muci and Lucas Digne saw the teams head into the break level.
Five minutes into the second half, Muci scored his second and the game’s final goal.
Aston Villa opened their Conference League journey with a 3-2 defeat against Legia Warsaw, this season won’t be as easy as some had thought.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE 🔥
— Legia Warszawa 🏆 (@LegiaWarszawa) September 21, 2023
Fot. @PartykaJanusz #LEGAVL #UECL #EndlessStory #PolandTravel pic.twitter.com/N9I6v89STk
Last year’s finalists Fiorentina stopped
Fiorentina is the first club to have a chance to make back-to-back Europa Conference League finals.
Their match against Genk was, once again, proof of the quality within this tournament.
Within 25 minutes, the scoreline was 2-1 to Fiorentina - Luca Ranieri, who had failed to score last season, scored twice for his club.
On the other side, Genk’s first goal of the evening came from Andi Zeqiri, one of the competition’s heroes last year.
Genk didn’t give up, and five minutes from time, Mark McKenzie scored the equalizer.
With this 2-2 draw, Fiorentina will need to press on and try to gain their first three points in their next match.
Film of the match 🎞️#GenkFiorentina#ForzaViola #GenkFiorentina #ACFFiorentina #UECL pic.twitter.com/OmAIC5FvnI
— ACF Fiorentina (@acffiorentina) September 21, 2023
Historic debut for Zrinjski against AZ
Zrinjski became the first ever Bosnian team to play in a group stage with their match against AZ, who made the quarter-finals last year.
They didn’t imagine that their debut match would be so crazy.
AZ began the match with an easy 3-0 lead in the first half, but in the second half Zrinjski became unstoppable.
They came back and won the match impressively, 4-3. An unforgettable debut night in the competition.
👏 First team from Bosnia and Herzegovina to compete in the UEFA group stage & win a game
— UEFA Europa Conference League (@europacnfleague) September 22, 2023
🤯 Complete the comeback after being 3-0 down at half-time
A debut to be proud of for Zrinjski 👊#UECL pic.twitter.com/ayFzRbwq3b
Dinamo Zagreb statement win over Astana
Making their Conference League debut this season is Croatian powerhouse Dinamo Zagreb, traditionally one of the more dangerous sides in the sub-elite tiers of European football.
Flying under the radar, they could be one of this season’s dark horses, despite selling some key players over the summer, and seemingly rebuilding their squad.
On Thursday they smashed their Kazakh visitors, Astana, 5-1, with goals from Bruno Petkovic, Marko Bulat, Antonio Marin and Tibor Halilovic.
Interestingly enough, the two teams also met in the Champions League qualifiers earlier this summer, with Dinamo winning 6-0 on aggregate.
Astana will desperately want to reverse the trend in the return game on 30 November.
Zajedno do pobjede! 💙
— GNK Dinamo (@gnkdinamo) September 21, 2023
📸 Pixsell pic.twitter.com/nwnhSD7YWo
KI Klaksvik’s debut goal wasn’t enough to overcome Slovan Bratislava
Another team to provide their country with a European group stage debut is KI Klaksvik from the Faroe Islands.
After a magical summer that included progressing two Champions League qualifying rounds and some memorable moments, they ended up in the Conference League.
Today they travelled to a side with experience of the competition, Slovan Bratislava.
The Slovaks weren’t very impressive over the summer, but feel at home in the Conference League.
Klaksvik, however, shocked them and went 1-0 up, after a great corner from Arne Frederiskberg ended up in the net via a Deni Pavlovic tap in.
It was a team from the Faroe Island’s first ever group stage goal.
Frederiksberg, who sells frozen pizza part-time, was KI’s best player over the summer, and continues to amaze at the age of 31.
But Bratislava woke up in the second half with goals from Vladimir Weiss and Aleksandar Cavric to make it 2-1 at full-time.
A respectful performance for KI, who will be hoping to get their debut points in the competition soon.
Edited by Alex Smith
