The group stage of EMF Champions League has come to an end on Friday morning, and where 64 teams started 32 remained. This has quickly become 16 after the first round of the knockout stage finished by the end of the day.
Group Stage
After confidently beating Borussia Hermannstadt 6:2, Fapuma FC topped Group B, while Sokolovi Istocno Sarajevo came second in the same group after winning against On Gal Hyundai. In Group D ECOS and Lomanose played an exciting match for the top place of the group, quickly exchanging goals during the game, which finished with the Bosnia Herzegovinian teams triumphing over the Slovenians with a winning goal in the 40th minute.
Bosnia Herzegovina has sent another two of its teams into the best-32 stage, Mira AD (Group K) and Julius Meinl (Group G).
In Group F, Serbian DOK won the group by beating Bulgarian Milky Group Bio Sofia in a penalty shootout after finishing 1:1 in regular time. At end of their winning match (3:2) against Ironi Ben Dor Tanzmannschaft Bucuresti come first in Group I, while Hotel Sport grabbed the other qualifying place by overcoming Karampana in a penalty shootout. Next to Hotel Sport, the other two participating Croatian teams Dinamo Zagreb (Group M) and Art Metali Junajted (Group L) have also reach the next stage.
Seven out of eight Romanian teams reached the last-32, when in the second part of the morning Tanzmannschaft Bucuresti, FC Boromir Ramnicu Valcea, Juventus Sibiu, Coriolan Bacau and Autovip Garden Simleu Silvaniei were joined between the best-32 by their fellow countrymen Danco Pro Bucuresti (Group O) and MAV Sport Timisoara (Group P).
Last-32 stage
Teams representing 12 different countries remained in the competition after the exciting last-32 stage has finished Friday afternoon.
Bosnia Herzegovinian Julius Meinl won their place between the best-16 by winning against DOK 5:4 in a penalty shootout, and will meet Banco Casino Devils from Slovakia in the next round, who overcame Danco Pro Bucuresti with penalties after a goalless regular time.
The other Slovakian team ASGuard Security Košice secured their place on tomorrow’s schedule by beating Milky Group Bio Sofia 1:0 and are going to face Montenegro’s Valter tomorrow. This result left KCM 2000 Group Plovdiv the last Bulgarian team standing in the competition. They only advanced thanks to winning a penalty shootout against Sokolovi Istocno Sarajevo.
BKMK Werbedesign has also only overcome Prestige MFC with penalties, just like Tanzmannschaft Bucuresti did against Pruska – Mesopromet Franca.
One of the big surprises of the afternoon was Romanian FC Boromir Ramnicu Valcea losing against England’s Westone3 2:4. But Romania has still three teams standing next to Tanzmannschaft Bucuresti, namely MAV Sport Timisoara after winning 3:2 against Hotel Sport, Juventus Sibiu by beating Hungary’s Kartal SE 3:2 and Coriolan Bacau who overcame one of the strongest minifootball teams in Europe ECOS 3:2.
This left Hungary with one team remaining in the competition, ECECE-Energofish who walked into the last-16 stage almost effortlessly with a 3:0 win and are going to face local Lomanose in the next round. Serbian Polimark made one of the former ECL champions, Hungarian Aramis SE – Mad Dogs leave the competition, and now can prepare for a match against Moldova’s FC ECOLUX.
After two of their teams losing their respective games, Croatia will be represented by Art Metali Junajted in the last-16 phase where they will have to show their true strength against Romanian Coriolan Bacau.
Matches of the last-16 will be played tomorrow at 10 a.m., all at once.