Today, "Noah" will face the Slovak club "Ružomberok" in the playoff stage of the UEFA Conference League. This will be the first match of a two-legged confrontation, which will take place in the city of Abovyan. The game is scheduled to start at 19:00 Moscow time and 20:00 Yerevan time.
"Ružomberok" is the winner of the Slovak Cup. Although the team finished only in fifth place in the league, they qualified for European competitions thanks to their success in the national cup. Interestingly, the club, founded in 1906, has never played in the group stage of European tournaments in its history. This season marks their debut in the playoff stage of the Conference League.
Ružomberok's path to this stage has not been easy. In the qualifying rounds, they faced Kazakhstan's "Tobol", Turkey's "Trabzonspor", and Croatia's "Hajduk". Their results varied: a confident 5-3 aggregate win over "Tobol", a 0-3 defeat to "Trabzonspor", and a narrow 1-0 victory over "Hajduk".
Historically, the club's greatest success in European competitions was in the 2017/18 season when they passed Serbian "Vojvodina" and Norwegian "Brann" in the Europa League qualifiers but lost 0-2 on aggregate to "Everton" in the third round.
According to Transfermarkt, the total squad value of "Ružomberok" is estimated at 6.75 million euros, slightly less than "Noah", whose squad is valued at 7.7 million euros. The most expensive players on the Slovak team are the goalkeeper, valued at 650,000 euros, and three defenders valued at 550,000 and 450,000 euros.
As for "Ružomberok's" achievements, the club boasts two major titles: the Slovak championship in 2006 and the Slovak Cup victories in 2006 and 2024.
