Sheriff Tiraspol Opportunity To Make History In The Champions League

Sheriff vs Dinamo Zagreb (Twitter @gnkdinamo)

JAKARTA - Sheriff Tiraspol has the opportunity to make history as the first Moldovan club to appear in the Champions League group stage. The club successfully won the first leg of the qualifying play-off against Dinamo Zagreb.

Entertaining Dinamo at the Bolshaya Sportivnaya Arena, Tuesday local time, the Sheriff won convincingly 3-0 thanks to an Adama Traore brace and a goal from Dimitris Kolovos.

RESULTS Play-offs, 1st leg Best performance?#UCL

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 17, 2021

Launching Antara, Wednesday, August 18, match statistics show that the visitors actually appeared to dominate no less than 61 percent of ball possession throughout the match, but they failed to translate that into a fairly effective attack.

On the other hand, the Sheriff appeared aggressive by releasing 19 attempted shots, although only four of them met the target but were able to produce three goals.

The deadlock was broken late in the first half when full-back Cristiano da Silva Leite sent a through ball which was completed by Traore from the center of the box.

The 1-0 score gave the Sheriffs confidence and nine minutes after the break they doubled their lead through Kolovos' right-footed shot through Momo Yansane.

Dinamo tried to reply but unfortunately Luka Ivanusec's shot in the 62nd minute could still be parried by goalkeeper Georgios Athanasiadis and only produced a corner.

Instead of replying, Dinamo's goal was broken again by Traore who completed a wave of Sheriff's counter-attacks completing Henrique Luvannor's through ball.

The 3-0 score lasted until dispersal, making Dinamo carry a heavy burden if they wanted to qualify for the Champions League group phase this season.

In contrast, the Sheriff on paper only need a draw when they travel to Maksimir Stadium on Wednesday next week to make their debut in the main round of the Champions League.

If successful, it will be the Sheriff's first success in 19 attempts to reach the main draw of the Champions League.

In 2009/10 the Sheriffs had reached the qualifying playoffs, unfortunately they lost 0-1 and 0-2 against the Greek representatives, Olympiakos.