There's no exiting this stadium without a winner tonight as it's the second leg of the Champions League 1st Qualifying Round meeting between Riga and Malmö FF. Game on!
It’s a hectic schedule for the away team, as they were in action only three days ago in the Allsvenskan.
This stadium uses artifical turf, unlike Malmö FF's home stadium. The visitors last 14 games on artifical turf have ended in 5 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses.
These teams have little in common geographically as Malmö FF have to travel 800 kilometers to reach their opponents. The trip home will be especially long if the match ends in defeat.
Riga form and stats
Riga was eliminated in the 1st qualifying round last season in the Champions League.Riga have been very solid at home in the Virsliga so far, with 24 points collected from 9 matches (8-0-1). This has contributed greatly to their 2nd position in the table. Riga has won so many consecutive home games (six in a row) that they struggle to remember the last time points were lost here at Stadions Skonto. We remember; it was Rigas FS.
The fans are hoping that Riga will strike back in this match, putting things right after the 0-1 away loss in the Champions League game against Malmö FF.
Prior to that, an away loss at Liepaja in the Virsliga.There's a new game coming up fairly quickly for Riga as they are travelling to their away game against Spartaks Jurmala in the Virsliga. That match is four days after this one.
Riga are showing their attacking force in their league home games this season, scoring more than 2,5 goals per game on average (23 goals in 9 games). From these home matches, Riga have conceded only 7 goals.
Malmö FF form and stats
They also participated in Europa League last season. This ended in the play-offs.The story so far for the visiting team on their Allsvenskan travels is 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats.
Malmö had fun at their own home (Stadions Skonto) last time out, beating Sirius 4-0. Søren Rieks, Antonio Čolak, Veljko Birmančević and Anders Christiansen scored. Midfield player Jo Inge Berget was the top player of the team with a match rating of 7.95/10. Berget signed up for two assists, hit two key passes and dribled passed the opponent 1 of 1 times. As mentioned above, Malmö FF was the only team on the pitch versus Sirius in their previous game, winning 4-0. This could be a tougher task.
That result followed a home victory 1-0 versus Riga in the Champions League.There might be some complaints about the fixture list from the Malmö FF manager J. Dahl Tomasson as the team has another away game coming up in only four days, this time against Degerfors.
Malmö FF are not goal shy away from home in the league, finding the net 8 times in 5 away games so far. As for defending, Malmö rarely keep clean sheets as they have conceded 9 goals from these away matches.
Head 2 Head
Malmö FF - Riga 1-0 was the story when these teams last met, earlier this season.Top Goalscorers
  S. Milošević 11 goals | M. Soisalo 7 goals |   A. Čolak 6 goals |
Riga missing players
Malmö FF missing players
| Riga | Malmö FF | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 13 | Played | P | 9 | 25 | ||
| 16 | 12 | Won | W | 3 | 15 | ||
| 2 | 0 | Drew | D | 2 | 3 | ||
| 7 | 1 | Lost | L | 4 | 7 | ||
| 55 | 36 | Scored | S | 15 | 52 | ||
| 24 | 9 | Conceded | C | 15 | 29 | ||
| 100% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 100% | ||
| 84% | 85% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 89% | 88% | ||
| 60% | 77% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 78% | 72% | ||
| 32% | 38% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 44% | 44% | ||
| 20% | 23% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 22% | 20% | ||
| 44% | 46% | BTTS | BTTS | 78% | 64% | ||
| 40% | 46% | Clean Sheets | C S | 11% | 28% | ||
| 16% | 8% | Failed to Score | F T | 11% | 8% | ||
| 5.2 | 6.7 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 6.8 | 6.5 | ||
| 2.6 | 2.7 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 4.1 | 3.9 | ||
| 2.1 | 2 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 2.6 | 2.1 | ||
| 2 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 10 | 11.6 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 15.8 | 16.1 | ||
| 4.7 | 6.3 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 5.1 | 5.4 | ||
| 51% | 54% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 29% | 41% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Rigas FS | 14 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 35 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 22 | 34 |
| 2 | Riga | 16 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 36 | 15 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 23 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 8 | 21 | 32 |
| 3 | Valmiera / BSS | 15 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 25 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 32 |
| 4 | Liepaja | 14 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 21 | 17 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 10 | 4 | 22 |
| 5 | FC Daugavpils / Progress | 16 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 23 | 25 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 16 | -2 | 21 |
| 6 | Spartaks Jurmala | 15 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 21 | 23 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 11 | 18 | -2 | 18 |
| 7 | Metta / LU | 15 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 30 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 18 | -17 | 9 |
| 8 | Noah Jurmala | 13 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 9 | 48 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 28 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 20 | -39 | 3 |
| 9 | Ventspils | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Malmö FF | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 23 |
| 2 | Djurgården | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 20 |
| 3 | AIK | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 17 |
| 4 | Elfsborg | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| 5 | Norrköping | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 14 |
| 6 | Degerfors | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 14 |
| 7 | Kalmar | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 14 |
| 8 | Hammarby | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 12 |
| 9 | Sirius | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 14 | -7 | 12 |
| 10 | Halmstad | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | -1 | 10 |
| 11 | Mjallby | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | -2 | 10 |
| 12 | IFK Göteborg | 9 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| 13 | Häcken | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 9 |
| 14 | Östersunds FK | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| 15 | Varberg | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -8 | 8 |
| 16 | Örebro | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 19 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 14 | -14 | 7 |
- Malmö FF
- Sydsvenskan - (local newspaper)
- Svenska Fans: Malmö FF - (supporter blog)