The Arda Kardzhali team departed this morning for Lithuania on a flight from Plovdiv. The footballers, led by coach Alexander Tunchev, will conduct a training session today at 19:00 on the official stadium in Kaunas, where tomorrow evening they will face local Kaunas Žalgiris in a match from the third qualifying round of the Conference League tournament.
Before departure, head coach Alexander Tunchev shared that there are no injured players in the team, except for Emil Viachki and Plamen Krachunov. Tunchev expressed optimism about the upcoming match:
Our mindset is to go and play a good match and achieve a good result. It's clear that it won't be easy. Kaunas's team is good, they have many foreigners, but for our players, this will certainly be a challenge. My personal opinion is that we have chances.
The Arda coach also expressed hope that Emil Viachki will be available for the return leg. Tunchev emphasized that the team is focused on the immediate task - eliminating Kaunas Žalgiris, before thinking about possibly qualifying for the group stage of the tournament.
It's important to note that Arda Kardzhali has already achieved significant success in the previous round of the Conference League, eliminating Finnish HJK Helsinki 4:3 after a penalty shootout. This result shows that the Bulgarian team has the potential to perform well in the upcoming match against the Lithuanian opponent.
The match between Kaunas Žalgiris and Arda Kardzhali will be an important test for the Bulgarian club in European tournaments and will give the team an opportunity to continue their path towards the group stage of the Conference League.