Europa League: Sheriff vs. Utrecht! Abyss? Low point? Just how tough is Sheriff right now?

Let's begin our first discussion about the Europa League: Sheriff vs. Utrecht!

Sheriff still has some recognition, after all, they have been competing in European tournaments every year since the 21st century, which has given them significant visibility.

In the 21/22 Champions League, they achieved a surprising victory over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu and gained a bit of a dark horse image.

But now, they are not what they used to be, currently facing a very low period.

Originally, Sheriff was quite wealthy, backed by the Sheriff Holding Company, a super giant that monopolizes multiple sectors in the region.

However, due to certain reasons, they gradually lost their grip, and owner Viktor Gusan has moved to Germany, resulting in a significant decline in financial strength.

So, it has become very difficult for Sheriff to attract foreign players with high salaries.

The most obvious change is the team's market value, when they defeated Real Madrid that season, the entire team's value was €30.63 million, but now it has dropped to only €6.93 million.

As a result, the team has also lost its dominance in the Moldovan league.

The season before last, they only finished as runners-up, and last season, they even ended up in third place, marking the first time since the 21st century that they fell out of the top two, which indicates they are indeed in a very low period.

Here's a point: although last season was already a low point in the club's history, this season may be even worse.

This is because they lost 8 key players during the offseason.

The reasoning is simple; for a team like Sheriff, which relies almost entirely on foreign players, when they can't offer enough money, team cohesion tends to be weak.

To put it bluntly, players travel from afar to such an obscure place just to make a living, right? If they can't even make ends meet, why would they stay?

The head coach situation is also somewhat lacking, as this season they gave up on searching for a strong head coach, and instead promoted interim coach Mihailov to a permanent position.

Mihailov's advantage is that he knows the team very well, having been the head coach here since 2014.

However, his drawback is that his capability is somewhat lacking; in his eleven years, he has served as interim coach 7 times but has never been promoted before, indicating that the management does not highly regard his abilities. It was only this season, due to financial constraints, that they hesitated until June to finally promote him.

Worse still, today they are not playing at their home ground but at a stadium in Nice, Borelini City.

This place is quite different from Sheriff, as the main ethnic group and dominant language are different. For example, Sheriff predominantly speaks Russian, while here, Romanian is the primary language, making it likely that Sheriff won't have as much of a home advantage.

Utrecht is not particularly famous either and hasn't participated in European competitions for five years, which puts them at a disadvantage in terms of experience.

However, the entire team’s market value is nearly ten times that of Sheriff...

In fact, the total market value of the Moldovan league is only €25.53 million, which is less than half of Utrecht's.

One of Utrecht's forwards has a market value that exceeds Sheriff’s by ten times.

If Sheriff still had the spirit of previous years, they might be able to compete.

But now, in this low period and not playing at home, it will be very difficult for them to perform well.

So, can Utrecht satisfy their fans? What do you all think? I hope they return victorious.

Alright, for today's other matches, I will still send my written opinions in the evening. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. "Enjoy the game," and let's not miss each other!

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