Listening to the Cypriot football representative, it sounds like APOEL's main problem could be that the team is not fully played yet, although at the same time I saw part of the return match between APOEL vs Bratislav Slovan and APOEL did not give the impression of an unplayed team. As if the system players understand where everyone should be on the field, but the accuracy of the match faltered. The biggest problems for RFS could really be the climatic conditions in Cyprus + the fact that they haven't really played against such serious teams as APOEL (there have been games against Bodo/Glimt and Riga FC), which raises concerns about RFS's ability to quickly adapt to this type of game. The positive side of RFS - the team is very well-matched and against all opponents, including Bodo/Glimt, has been able to show a meaningful performance and control the ball and create dangerous goal-scoring situations, even if the result in the sum of two games was very bad (For comparison - Polish champions against Bodo/Glimt looked much worse than RFS in my opinion). Another thing that can be good for RFS - the first game is in Riga, which maybe removes the shock therapy that was in the away game against Bodo/Glimt. In order for RFS to be able to overcome APOEL, they need at least a two-goal advantage over the Cypriot champions in Riga, if not, then it will be very difficult in the away game.
There was never a south stand (other than some temporary stands, which are no longer allowed by UEFA). RFS can play this playoff round at LNK but then either Skonto or Daugava…
At the end of the Skonto stadium, behind the goal, there were never serious stands - there were only temporary stands, which were not stationary. It was planned to build normal grandstands there, but after the financial crisis of 2008 + the drop in the rating of the Latvian national team and the decrease in the average number of spectators, the final grandstand was not built. The main problem of the stadium is that it is an old-fashioned classic football stadium - I have listened to Latvian football representatives Guntars Indriksons (former responsible person of the Latvian Football Federation for football infrastructure in Latvia), then the main mistake of Skonto Stadium was lack of experience and today the stadium would not be built in this way, but would rather choose the strategy of the Swiss football stadium, that the stadium is combined with some commercial buildings, such as shopping centers, office buildings, etc., so that the stadium can support itself.
