Balzan FC are daring to dream of causing an upset against Videoton as the Reds host the Hungarian giants in the return leg of the Europa League first qualifying round match at the Hibs Stadium today (kick-off: 5.45pm).
A 2-0 defeat in last week’s first leg in Budapest has left Balzan on the brink of an early exit from the UEFA club competition as goals from Marko Scepovic and Danko Lazovic in the final 11 minutes of the match handed the Hungarians an assuring advantage before today’s second leg.
Still, Vladimir Simovic, Balzan’s sporting director, said that the Reds are obliged to keep believing that they can upset their more-quoted opponents today.
“Videoton are surely the favourites to progress but we have to believe that we can pull off an upset,” Simovic told Times of Malta yesterday.
“Before the tie, Videoton were heavily fancied to breeze through given the size of the club and the high quality of players they boast.
“But last week, Balzan showed that they are capable of competing with them. Our team’s performance was excellent as for the first 80 minutes the match was going according to our plan and we could have easily sneaked an away goal.
“However, two mistakes in the final ten minutes proved costly for us and we now have a tall order to turn this tie around.”
Balzan must pull off a minor miracle to progress as they need to score three times without reply but Simovic said that his team will have to be very intelligent in how they approach the match.
“We need to win by two clear goals to at least force extra-time but surely we will not adopt an all-out attacking approach as if we concede a goal the tie is over,” he said.
“It’s important that we play with our mind and not with our heart.
“We hope that the hot weather conditions will cause problems to the Videoton players in the second part of the match and hopefully we can exploit from the situation.”
Bojan Kaljevic is again expected to lead Balzan’s forward line and the Montenegrin striker said that the players were desperate to get a positive result in front of their fans.
“Our chances of progressing are very difficult but in football anything can happen and if we can take our chances who knows,” he said.
“Even if we don’t manage to get the result needed to go through I still hope that we can at least bow out of the competition with a victory.
“It would be a huge boost for the players and the fans before the start of the season.
“I hope that our fans will come to the stadium tomorrow as their presence will be crucial for us to get a positive result.”