Jurkovskis after Conference League debut: Riga's draw with Kairat is two points lost
Riga, a football club from Latvia's capital, drew 1:1 at home with Kazakhstan's Kairat in its first UEFA Conference League league-phase match. Captain Raivis Jurkovskis says the team had chances to win and still aims to take points in the remaining games.
Latvian football champions Riga, from the capital city, drew 1:1 at home with Kazakhstan's Almaty-based Kairat in their first league-phase match of the UEFA Conference League, a European club competition. Both teams are currently runners-up in their domestic leagues, while Kairat took part in the Champions League last year. Captain Raivis Jurkovskis, who turns 30 in December, played at left back this time. He sees the result as two points lost rather than one point gained.
How the match went
Jurkovskis believes Riga had many more chances to win and that the second half was better than the first. According to him, the team spent much of the game in the opponents' half, while the Kazakh side sat deep and only occasionally broke forward on the counter.
He said the plan was to play more down the flanks because the opposition had crowded the centre of the pitch. Jurkovskis himself caused the penalty against his team: he slipped and caught an opponent on the legs. The referee later explained that no card would be shown because he had seen the slip. Riga equalised fairly quickly and won a penalty of their own, but failed to convert it. Jurkovskis does not consider that the decisive moment, as chances kept coming afterwards, although at times the final pass was missing or one more pass was needed.
Looking ahead
The player said the league phase feels special, as the team used to watch such matches on television. In his view, Hungary's ETO was stronger than Kairat, and the home game against it, which Riga won 1:0 (the away leg ended 1:1), was harder.
Jurkovskis stressed that the aim is to win every game. He said the away match at Cyprus's Pafos could be the second toughest, after the home game against Italy's Atalanta. He thinks playing Atalanta at home is even an advantage, as pitch quality worsens in autumn.
Matches in the Latvian Virslīga remain just as important, he added. The team still hopes RFS will drop points somewhere, but to fight for the title Riga must win every league game.
