| Full name | FC Petržalka 1898 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Engerau | ||
| Founded | 7 June 1898 as Pozsonyi Torna Egyesület | ||
| Ground | Štadión Rapid, Bratislava, Slovakia (Capacity: 10,000) |
||
| Manager | Norbert Hrnčár | ||
| League | 2. liga | ||
| 2010-11 | 3rd | ||
| Website | Club home page | ||
|
|||
FC Petržalka 1898 is a Slovak football club based in Bratislava. In the 2009/2010 season the club played in the Corgoň Liga, after finishing last, the club was relegated to the Slovak First League.
The club plays its home matches at Štadión Rapid in Prievoz - part of Bratislava. The club's home ground, which is Štadión Petržalka, is not currently in use.[1] But a new stadium is being built, located in Ovsište, part of Bratislava Petržalka. The team wears white and black striped shirts.
The club, founded in 1898, initially played in the regional Hungarian league.[2] Since the establishment of the top flight Slovak league in 1993 Artmedia has been its constant member. The club achieved its biggest success in the mid 2000s, while playing under the coach Vladimír Weiss.[3] The club won the Corgoň Liga title in 2005 and later qualified for the group stage of the Champions League, where it achieved the biggest success of all the Slovak clubs. Later, in 2008 the club won the double, but during the next season most of the squad left the club.[1][4]
Contents |
| The squad which played in most of the matches of the 2005-06 Champions League.[5] Other members include: Obžera, Staňo, Tchuř, Konečný, Gomes and Mikulič |
They famously reached the lucrative group stages of the UEFA Champions League in 2005-06 after wins over Kairat Almaty, Celtic and Partizan Belgrade. They beat Almaty 4-3 on aggregate in the 1st qualifying round despite a 2-0 defeat in the first leg. However it was on 27 July 2005 that they made their mark on the tournament, producing one of the shock results of Champions League history as they beat 2003 UEFA Cup finalists and 1967 European Cup winners Celtic 5-0 in the first leg of their Champions League 2nd qualifying round match. The stunned Celtic side could not quite recover, only managing to win the return leg 4-0, and Artmedia held on to progress in the tournament. On 23 August 2005 they clinched a place in the group stages after overcoming Serbian powerhouse Partizan Belgrade 4-3 on penalties after a 0-0 aggregate scoreline thus becoming the second Slovak club after 1. FC Košice in 1997-98 to reach the coveted Champions League proper. Their success was even more remarkable considering Artmedia's entire annual budget is just over £1m.
Artmedia also made history by becoming one of the first two clubs ever to advance from the first qualifying round into the Champions League group stage. The other club to do so was 2004-05 winners Liverpool, who were given a special entry into the first qualifying round of the 2005-06 event, and joined Artmedia in the group stage.
Artmedia played their Champions League fixtures at the Tehelné pole ground of crosstown rivals Slovan Bratislava because their own ground does not meet UEFA standards for Champions League play.
On 28 September 2005, Artmedia made history once again by becoming the first Slovak side to collect a point in the Champions League group stage (in the eighth attempt by a Slovak side to do so). In another famous upset, they came back from a 2-0 first-half deficit to defeat 2004 Champions League winners Porto 3-2 at Porto's home ground.
Eventually, they finished third in the group, parachuting them into the UEFA Cup, but not before missing a late chance to score a goal in the return fixture against Porto that would have sent them to the round of 16 at Rangers' expense.
In December 2005 the goalkeeper Juraj Čobej underwent a complicated brain surgery attempting to remove a malign tumor. Fortunately, he has fully recovered and has already stood a firm ground in goal during the first rounds of the 2006-07 season.
Artmedia lost the home leg of their UEFA Cup round of 32 tie with Levski Sofia 1-0 and were knocked out of the tournament after an away defeat of 2-0.
After the successful season the coach Vladimír Weiss left to FC Saturn Ramenskoe.[6] Several players left the club, among others Ján Ďurica to FC Saturn Ramenskoe, Balázs Borbély to 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Blažej Vaščák to Treviso FBC.
The club reassigned Vladimír Weiss as head coach for the 2007-08 season. Some of the players came back, the club's captain Ján Kozák returned from a loan at WBA, Aleš Urbánek, Branislav Fodrek and Branislav Obžera returned, and the new faces in the club, among others, included Czech fullback Radek Dosoudil, Brazilian midfielder Cléber and Czech striker Zbyněk Pospěch.
The club went on to win the title in the Slovak league for the second time, beating rivals MŠK Žilina in the important matches and in the final table as well. Before the new season the club owner Ivan Kmotrík and the main sponsor left the club, which left later impact on the team. During the UEFA Champions League 2008-09 qualification round Artmedia won over FC Valetta and Tampere United, but lost to Juventus, with which the club suffered 0-4 loss in the first leg and later only drew 1-1. During the next stages several players left the club (4 of the to local rivals ŠK Slovan Bratislava).[1]
Prior to the 2009-10 season a huge number of players left the club, most of them were replaced by youngsters and players from the defunct club Inter Bratislava.[7]
After a decent first half of the season, where MFK Petrzalka played in the region of sixth place, the team fell apart in the second half of the season, and eventually the club were relegated at the end of the season.
Artmedia used to play their home matches at Petržalka Stadion. The pitch at the place of the stadium has been there for more than a hundred years. Even before World War II, the stadium was the venue of several international matches. Although destroyed during the war, new stand soon arose from the ruins of the old one and the stadium started to resemble its current look. Major changes have occurred in last ten years, following improvements in Artmedia's footballing results. Stands behind goals were totally reconstructed and a new one was built along the pitch.
Today's estimated capacity is 10,000; it is however impossible to give the exact value, because older part of the stadium still remains for standing visitors. The average attendance of league matches at this stadium is floating above 4,000, one of the highest in Slovakia. However, the stadium does not meet some of the UEFA criteria, therefore the club has been forced to play its international matches elsewhere. Notably, they played their 2005-06 UEFA Champions League campaign at Tehelné pole, home venue of crosstown rivals Slovan Bratislava.
As of 1 January 2012 [8][9] Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||