August 6th, 2009
Europa League (3rd qualifying round, 2nd leg)
Sigma Olomouc 3 Aberdeen 0 (Sigma Olomouc advances 8-1 on aggregate)
Attendance: 7500
Admission: 150kc
Game rating: 7/10
The 2009/10 Europa League is Sigma's first venture into Europe since the 2005 Inter-Toto Cup. They hadn't played in the UEFA Cup/Europa League since 2002 when they went out to Sarajevo on penalties. In the 2nd qualifying round Sigma edged out Fram (Iceland) 3-1 on aggregate to advance to the next round. Most thought Aberdeen were the better side, and would advance without much problems. However, things certainly didn't turn out as expected.
Sigma easily won the first leg in Scotland 5-1, which essentially made the second leg meaningless. Around 300 Aberdeen supporters still made the trip, and full credit to them for following their team in what was a hopeless situation. Aberdeen were completely out of sorts for both legs. To put it politely, they looked awful.
The second leg wasn't that much different from the first one. Sigma scored early, and often, with three goals in the first half. With a little more luck, they could have had one or two more in the second half.
Olomouc now advances to the Europa League playoffs against Everton (in Everton on August 20th and Olomouc on August 27th). The winner advances to the Europa League group stages.
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