Lugano kicked off their European Cup campaign with a festival of goals and a home defeat. In Thun, the Ticino side were defeated 3:4 by Fenerbahce Istanbul in the 2nd round of Champions League qualifying.
23.07.2024, 22:41
23.07.2024, 22:46
SDA
The 38-year-old Edin Dzeko was the match-winner for the Turks, who had the overwhelming majority of the 6,000 spectators in the Thun stadium on their side. The Bosnian, who has already played for Manchester City, AS Roma and Inter Milan, scored Fenerbahce's first three goals. He scored in stoppage time of the first half with a penalty to make it 1:1, seconds after the break to make it 2:1 and in the 67th minute to make it 3:2.
To Lugano's credit, they rallied again after Ferdi Kadioglu's fourth goal (74') and were rewarded for their efforts. Shortly before the final whistle, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Milton Valenzuela scored to make it 3-4, which improves the starting position for the second leg away on Tuesday.
Lugano not only contributed to the goal spectacle in Thun with their goals, but also involuntarily with mistakes. Yanis Cimignani conceded the penalty before the 1:1 with an uncontrolled tackle and thus carelessly undid the good work of Lugano, who had defended the lead taken in the 4th minute by Ayman El Wafi well up to that point. Lugano's second goal in the 64th minute from Uran Bislimi was also followed by a mistake from the hosts: substitute Lukas Mai played the ball into the feet of Fred in his own penalty area just two and a half minutes after making it 2-2, allowing him to set Dzeko up perfectly.
The task for the second leg looks difficult, even though Lugano had good experience in Istanbul last season, winning 3-2 against Besiktas in the group stage of the Conference League. At half-time of the duel with Fenerbahce, there are more indications that Mattia Croci-Torti and his team will continue their journey in the Europa League. Their opponents in the 3rd qualifying round would be the loser of the clash between Dynamo Kiev and Partizan Belgrade, which would almost certainly be Partizan, who lost the first leg 2:6.
