Chelsea vs. the boys from “Dave”: MOL Vidi, who the hell are you?
Matchday Two in Europe’s second-tier cup competition is coming up. Whilst the Premier League big boys are taking on Barcelona, Napoli, Valencia and Hoffenheim in the Champions League, Chelsea welcome Mol Vidi FC to Stamford Bridge on Thursday.
Maurizio Sarri chose to go with a relatively strong line-up against PAOK Salonika, the team that ought to be Chelsea’s toughest opponents in the Europa League group stage. In a game they dominated, Chelsea laboured to a meagre 1-0 win. Now, after two very competitive match-ups against Liverpool, Sarri will likely dig a little deeper into his squad’s rotational possibilities.
Whoever Sarri picks should be able to beat a team that were just a jumble of letters to Blues fans until a month or so ago. So, what do we need to know?
Starting with basics: Mol Vidi FC come from Hungary’s oldest city, Székesfehérvár. Without being disrespectful, let’s say we call it “Dave.”
Chelsea supporters travelling to the away fixture in December could have looked forward to a warm welcome from a city and club that has a symbolic (welcome all) open door on their respective crests. However, that won’t be the case as the game won’t now be played in Dave. Like Tottenham Hotspur, MOL Vidi are renovating their stadium and it won’t be finished in time. The game will be played in the Groupama Arena, Budapest.
You could be forgiven for not knowing the team’s actual name as it varies depending on where you look. Google “Videoton FC” and you’ll end up in the same ballpark. Founded in 1941, Vidi are to name changes as Chelsea are to managerial swap-outs. They have had 17 moniker alterations in those 77 years. For sponsorship reasons MOL, a Hungarian oil and gas company, was incorporated into the name when they came on board as the club’s main sponsor this season.
In footballing terms, Vidi are managed by the Serb Marko Nikolic, a young coach whose playing career was cut short by injury. His favoured formation is a slight variation on Sarri’s 4-3-3. Vidi generally adopt a 4-3-2-1 setup. The squad have a combined value of £14.7 million: more or less equating to a Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Olivier Giroud.
Like their hosts, the boys from Dave currently sit third in their league. Last season saw them win Hungary’s top league for only the third time. That championship gave them entry to this season’s Champions League. Having made it through three qualifying rounds, they lost out to AEK Athens by an aggregate score of 3-2. As a result they are in the Europa League for the second time. In the first group game, at home to BATE Borisov, they lost 2-0.
In the UEFA rankings they are Hungary’s top team. Unfortunately for them, that still puts them in 243rd place against Chelsea’s 20th position.
The highlight of the club’s European history came in 1985 when they reached the final of the UEFA Cup. On their way, they knocked out Manchester United before meeting Real Madrid in the final, which was played over two legs. They lost at home 3-0 but followed that up with a 1-0 win in the Bernabeu in front of 98,000 fans. The aggregate defeat has never been bettered and is unlikely to be this week.
Thursday ought to finally be the chance to see Maurizio Sarri give one or two younger members of his squad a chance to take the field. However, Sarri doesn’t appear to be particularly keen on integrating the youth just yet. His concentration is on getting the senior members of the squad on board with his plans. The problem is, as the season progresses and the games get more competitive, those opportunities to play “the kids” will simply fade away.
If Sarri doesn’t feel able to play them against a side ranked 243rd in Europe (but first in the hearts of Dave), their chance really isn’t coming any time soon. And that’s a real shame.