Today’s opponent of “Pyunik” in the play-off round of the Conference League is the champion of Slovenia, FC “Celje”. The champions of Armenia and Slovenia will compete for a place in the group stage of the Conference League.
The club “Celje” was founded in 1919. The owner of the team is the former Russian footballer Valery Kolotilo, and the head coach is the former famous Spanish footballer Albert Riera, who lived in Russia for a long time and married a Russian woman.
Throughout its history, “Celje” has become the champion of Slovenia twice but has never been relegated to the lower division (the Slovenian Championship has been held since 1991).
In 2020, “Celje” became the champion of Slovenia for the first time, breaking the long-standing dominance of “Maribor”. In 2024, the club repeated its success, finishing 12 points ahead of “Maribor”.
In the championship, the team showed an attacking style of football, scoring 75 goals in 36 matches (“Pyunik” scored 84 goals in 36 matches).
“Celje” has participated in the group stage of European competitions only once — in the 1997 Intertoto Cup, where they were in the same group as Moscow’s “Lokomotiv”. Last season, the team reached the play-off of the Conference League, defeating Portugal’s “Vitoria” and Belarusian “Neman”, but lost to Israel’s “Maccabi Tel Aviv”.
In the 2020/21 pandemic season, “Celje” lost to “Ararat-Armenia” in the third round of the Europa League in a single match. The only goal was scored by Sergei Vakulenko, who currently plays for “Pyunik”. Since then, “Celje” has not faced Armenian teams.
Path to the 2024/25 Conference League play-off:
- “Celje” (Slovenia) — “Flora” (Estonia) 7-1 (2-1, 5-0)
- “Celje” (Slovenia) — “Slovan” (Slovakia) 1-6 (1-1, 0-5)
- “Celje” (Slovenia) — “Shamrock Rovers” (Ireland) 2-3 (1-0, 1-3)
Key players:
- Right-back Žan Karničnik (29 years old) — 1.5 million euros. Participant of EURO 2024, where he was one of Slovenia’s best players.
- Forward Aljoša Matko (24 years old) — 1 million euros. Top scorer of the previous Slovenian championship with 18 goals. Scored twice against “Flora” in the current European campaign.
- Forward Luka Menalo (28 years old) — 600 thousand euros. A player of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team (15 matches, 3 goals). Played for a long time with Dinamo Zagreb.
- Right-back Juanjo Nieto (29 years old) — 700 thousand euros. One of the team’s new players, with significant experience in Spain’s Segunda Division.
- Forward Ivan Brnić (22 years old) — 1.2 million euros. Croatian, on loan from Greece’s “Olympiacos”, also played for “Hajduk” and “Maribor”.
This summer, midfielder Clément Lernot from “Ararat” also joined the team, but he is not registered for the Conference League matches.
The total transfer value of the team is 13.21 million euros, while “Pyunik” is valued at 6.1 million euros.