Riga FC - Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand - Arsenal
Riga FC - Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand - Arsenal
Smaller clubs that finally reach a European group stage create nights that live long in the memory. Winners scored late and with a man less tend to become club folklore. Former academy players who rebuild their careers abroad often provide the decisive moment.
First qualifications for a league phase matter far beyond the result itself. Midfielders who never quite made a senior debut at a big club still carry the habits they learned there. Historic nights in the Baltic states deserve their place in the wider football story.
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Riga FC have reached a European group stage for the first time after a 2-1 home win over KI Klaksvik on Thursday. Former Arsenal midfielder Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand scored the 89th-minute winner to seal a 2-1 aggregate victory in the Conference League play-off.
The first leg in the Faroe Islands had finished 0-0. Riga were reduced to 10 men in the 75th minute after Andrés Salazar was sent off, but still found a way through. Oulad M’Hand picked up the ball near the edge of the box, drove into the area and finished into the top corner.
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Riga become only the third Latvian side to reach the league phase of a UEFA club competition, after Ventspils in the Europa League and RFS in the Conference League and Europa League.
Oulad M’Hand joined Arsenal’s academy from Feyenoord in 2020 and spent five years in north London. He was named in first-team squads, including in the Champions League, but never made an official senior appearance. After loans at Hull City and Den Bosch he was released in June 2025 and signed for Riga in January.
The 23-year-old Dutch midfielder of Moroccan descent has now written his name into Riga’s history. The Conference League league-phase draw will follow, giving the Latvian champions a first taste of the competition proper.
Supporters of his former club will enjoy the story. Academy graduates who find their path elsewhere still carry the badge with them. Riga’s players and fans will savour a landmark night after years of trying to take the final step in Europe.
The group-stage campaign will be a new test. For Oulad M’Hand it is another chapter after leaving Hale End, and one that already has a memorable goal attached.
Gabriel Jesus & Viktor Gyokeres
Gabriel Jesus & Viktor Gyokeres