A two-goal victory needed to advance
The result of the first match between Olympique Marseille and FK Mladá Boleslav, when the French team won 1:0, has predetermined the chance of both teams to advance to the next round. Only a two-goal victory will give the Mladá Boleslav team the reason to celebrate. If they win 1:0, extra time will be played and if the extra time ends in a draw, the match will have to be decided by kicks from the penalty line. According to UEFA Cup rules and regulations, any other single-goal victory of Mladá Boleslav team, as well as a draw will result in the advance of the French (a goal scored on the opponent's pitch has a double value).
As a result, Olympique Marseille has much better chances of advancing to the next round, thus remaining a paper favourite of the double match. „We just have to go for it and score a goal" commented Dušan Uhrin, the coach of the Mladá Boleslav team. „We hardly ever loose in our home environment, which is where chances are," the coach said. And he is right. In the preliminary rounds of the Champions League, Mladá Boleslav defeated the Norway champion Valerenga Oslo 3:1 thanks to an excellent start of the match, or drew even with the Turkish champion Galatasaray Istanbul 1:1. A result similar to a victory over Valerenga Oslo would perfectly suffice for the Mladá Boleslav advance.
What happens if FK Mladá Boleslav wins by two goals? In such case, the team would advance to the next round of the UEFA Cup, a major event from the sports, marketing and financial viewpoint. The forty teams which advance to the group stage are divided into eight five-team groups, and each team plays with all others within the group. This means that Mladá Boleslav would host two foreign teams and would play two matches abroad. Three leading teams from each group subsequently advance to the next (spring part) UEFA Cup round, two worst teams are eliminated.
What happens if FK Mladá Boleslav loses, plays a draw or wins by one goal only? This result would mean the end of the participation of the Mladá Boleslav team in the European football competitions. In such case Olympique Marseille would advance to the next round and Mladá Boleslav would have to wait for the next opportunity to the following summer. In fact, there exist several opportunities- either from the leading places of the first-league chart to the qualifying round of the Champions League and UEFA Cup, or as the Czech champion directly to the first round of the UEFA Cup or from the summer Intertoto Cup.
