Know everything about the first Moldovan club Sheriff Tiraspol who will participate in this year’s UEFA Champions League 2021/22
FC Sheriff Tiraspol who are simply known as Sheriff is a Moldovan football club based out of Tiraspol. They have qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League where they will meet ultimate champions Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and Shaktar Donetsk.
Sheriff occupied the only European berth by winning the Moldovan National Division league of Moldova under a Transnistrian flag. It is a “breakaway state” which is recognized only by other breakaway states and not the European Union.
The teams in Group D will travel to Tiraspol where they will face the hostile crowd of the Sheriff Stadium which has a capacity of 12,746 persons. Sheriff has written their name in the history books by becoming the first Moldovan club to participate in the Champions League.
Sheriff Tiraspol become the first Moldovan club to take part in the Champions League
FC Sheriff Tiraspol began their journey by quickly dispatching teams in the 3 rounds of the qualifying phase. They played a total of 6 matches to reach the final qualifying match against Croatian Champions Dinamo Zagreb.
Journey of FC Sheriff Tiraspol
Their first tie was against Teuta of Albania which they comfortably won by humiliating their opponents by scoring 5 goals on aggregate. Meanwhile, their second-round opponents were Armenian Champions Alashkert who were hammered by the Moldovan club by 4-1.
Subsequently, they advanced to the third qualifying round where they faced Serbian giants Red Star Belgrade in a hard-fought battle. Sheriff played the first-leg draw and just managed to edge out the Serbian giants by 2-1.
They reached the final group stage match where they were face to face with Croatian Champions Dinamo Zagreb who were hammered in the first leg by 3-0. Meanwhile, both the teams were not able to break down the defensive lines and played a goalless draw in the reverse fixture.
Sheriff Tiraspol Net Worth & Market Value
The small club out of Moldova has a market value of €12.18m which is one of the lowest in the Champions League. Meanwhile, the Owner of the Sheriff company which is the second largest company based out of Transnistria has a net worth of £1,324,582.