NCoach egg, new life. This is, at least, Torreense’s expectations, following a particularly turbulent week, which began with the dismissal of Luís Tralhão (who could not resist a cycle of six defeats, three draws and as many victories after the first 12 games of the season) and culminated in the hiring of João Nuno.
At 41 years old, the Montijo-born coach is preparing to play what will be the first international meeting of his (still short) career. Ahead of them will be Ararat-Armenia, at the Dr. Magalhães Pessoa Stadium, in Leiria, at 8pm (Mainland Portugal time) this Thursday, for the fourth round of the Europa League league phase.
The Portuguese team reaches this point in the competition in 28th place, with the same three points as Anderlecht, Hoffenheim, AC Milan, OFI Creta, Celta de Vigo and Jagiellonia Bialystok, the result of a victory (over Lillestrom, 1-2) and two defeats (against Sunderland, 1-2, and Ferencváros, 4-1), in the first three rounds.
The objective is, of course, to get back on track and, who knows, keep the dream of going further in this competition alive. This, in a game for which he will start with practically the entire squad available with the exception of Adama Baradji, who was removed from the list of players registered with UEFA, due to injury, and replaced by Luis Quintero.
Ahead, they will have a team led by fellow Portuguese Manuel Tulipa, who, like Viktoria Plzen, Marseille and Celtic, remains with the score at ‘zero’, following defeats against Sparta Prague (1-4), Jagiellonia Bialystok (3-1) and AZ Alkmaar, 0-4, meaning they live at the bottom of the league table.
Torreense-Ararat-Armenia, remember, will be officiated by an exclusively Serbian refereeing team, headed by Milos Milanovic, who will have Milan Pasajlic and Svetozar Zivin as assistants, Pavle Ilic as fourth referee, Aleksandar Zivkovic as VAR and Pavle Tomic as AVAR.
Scroll through the photo gallery and check out Torreense’s likely eleven.
