{"id":44385,"date":"2026-03-08T20:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/?p=44385"},"modified":"2026-03-08T20:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:11:05","slug":"premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Premium Liiga season started with a victory!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Today, Sunday, FCI Levadia\u2019s first team played their first Premium Liiga match of 2026 and secured a 2\u20130 win over FC Kuressaare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FCI Levadia began the new season and a new era under head coach Vjat\u0161eslav Zahovaiko with a confident victory, defeating FC Kuressaare 2\u20130 in the opening round of the Premium Liiga at Sportland Arena. Although the hosts controlled the game from the very beginning, the tension remained until the 79th minute when a penalty sealed the final result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Early pressure brought success<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Levadia took the initiative straight from the kickoff. The home side moved the ball fluently in attack and actively searched for opportunities in front of Kuressaare\u2019s goal. The breakthrough came in the 17th minute when Joseph Saliste delivered a cross and Mihkel Ainsalu directed a header towards goal. The ball bounced towards the far post, where Bubacarr Tambedou was in the right place to tap it into the net \u2013 1\u20130.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tambedou and Moussa Sambe continued to trouble the Kuressaare defense, but the visitors\u2019 goalkeeper Karl-Romet N\u00f5mm produced several excellent saves to keep his team in the game. Kuressaare\u2019s best chance came after a quick breakthrough by Taavi J\u00fcrisoo, who managed to get a promising shot away. After a deflection off Victory Iboro, Levadia goalkeeper Karl Andre Vallner managed to push the ball away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A more balanced second half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the break the game became somewhat more balanced. Kuressaare earned several set pieces but were unable to create a clear equalising opportunity. For FCI Levadia, Maksimilian Skvortsov, Victory Iboro and substitute Enock Otoo all came close to scoring the second goal. Skvortsov had the best chance in the 70th minute when, following a corner kick, his effort struck the post near the top corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lehtmets\u2019 sacrifice sealed the win<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The decisive moment came in the 79th minute when substitute striker Gregor Lehtmets went to control a bouncing ball in the penalty area and managed to get there first. Kuressaare defender Joonas Vaherm\u00e4gi attempted to clear the ball but struck Lehtmets forcefully in the face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lehtmets had to leave the field with a bloody nose and face, but the penalty he earned was confidently converted by Maksimilian Skvortsov \u2013 2\u20130.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Head coach Vjat\u0161eslav Zahovaiko after the match<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOpening rounds are always full of nerves for everyone. We haven\u2019t had a good match rhythm, which affected us a little. It\u2019s always better when the rhythm is already there, but after a longer break it takes some time to settle in. Overall, though, we handled it well,\u201d Zahovaiko said after the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe overall picture is promising. We managed to keep our defence solid and were rewarded with three points that we worked hard for throughout the game. At times we controlled the match, but there were also moments when Kuressaare had the initiative \u2014 you can\u2019t control everything. I saw many positive things, but also that we still need to keep working in the attacking phase to improve the final product. We get into good positions in front of goal, but we need to increase our conversion rate,\u201d Zahovaiko added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Download the FCI Levadia mobile app to stay up to date with all the latest club news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple user &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/fci-levadia\/id6758001217\">https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/fci-levadia\/id6758001217<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Android user &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=io.levadia.app\">https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=io.levadia.app<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FCI Levadia\u2019s next opponent in the second round will be Harju JK Laagri. The match will take place at the Laagri artificial pitch on March 15 at 14:30, with a live broadcast on Soccernet TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: Anna Andreas \/ jalgpall.ee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, Sunday, FCI Levadia\u2019s first team played their first Premium Liiga match of 2026 and secured a 2\u20130 win over&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990007,"featured_media":44383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[245],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premium-league"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Premium Liiga season started with a victory! | FCI Levadia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Premium Liiga season started with a victory! - 08.03.2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, Sunday, FCI Levadia\u2019s first team played their first Premium Liiga match of 2026 and secured a 2\u20130 win over&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FCI Levadia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fcilevadia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-08T18:09:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-08T18:11:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vs-Kure-scaled.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1277\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauri Valja\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LevadiaFCI\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LevadiaFCI\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Premium Liiga season started with a victory! | FCI Levadia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Premium Liiga season started with a victory! - 08.03.2026","og_description":"Today, Sunday, FCI Levadia\u2019s first team played their first Premium Liiga match of 2026 and secured a 2\u20130 win over&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/","og_site_name":"FCI Levadia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fcilevadia","article_published_time":"2026-03-08T18:09:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-08T18:11:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1277,"url":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vs-Kure-scaled.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Lauri Valja","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@LevadiaFCI","twitter_site":"@LevadiaFCI","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/"},"author":{"name":"Lauri Valja","@id":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/a1eb07427d4805b047b6e99152ea74ec"},"headline":"Premium Liiga season started with a victory!","datePublished":"2026-03-08T18:09:12+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-08T18:11:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/"},"wordCount":603,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vs-Kure-scaled.webp","articleSection":["Premium League"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/","url":"https:\/\/fcilevadia.ee\/en\/premium-liiga-season-started-with-a-victory\/","name":"Premium Liiga season started with a victory! 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