Football Round-Up: Gibraltar and Klavan
The Estonian football league season kicked off with a surprise over the weekend, as last year's champion FC Levadia lost at home to mid-table contender Paide.
The game's lone goal came in the first minute of injury time by Said Atie, after Levadia dominated most of the game.
Other results ended as anticipated. Nõmme Kalju beat FC Infornet 1-0, FC Flora welcomed Jõhvi FC Lokomotive to the top league with three goals (1-3), and in the battle of the Kalevs, Tallinn Kalev allowed six unanswered goals to be scored by Sillamäe Kalev.
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The Estonian national team will travel to Gibraltar for a friendly against the locals on Wednesday. Gibraltar, which only recently formed its national team, is the last European team Estonia has not played against.
The game will be the first for Estonia's new head coach Magnus Pehrsson, and a number of usual protagonists have already pulled out due to injuries. But Ragnar Klavan, Konstantin Vassiljev and Henrik Ojamaa will all travel to the 6-square-kilometer territory, which is ruled by the UK.
The two teams will meet again at the end of May in Tallinn, in what will also be a testimonial match for Estonia's all-time top scorer Andres Oper.
The game will be shown live online on ETV2, but will only be viewable in Estonia.
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The womens' national team began their season on Saturday in style, beating neighbors Latvia 8-2 in Tallinn.
Head coach Keith Boanas said the two conceded goals were the only downside of the game. He added that four players made their debut for Estonia, and a few footballers based abroad, did not make the game.
Estonia will play at Northern Ireland today and on Wednesday in their the next two games.
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Estonian national team captain Ragnar Klavan scored in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
The goal was Klavan's first ever in Germany. It was also the first ever scored by an Estonian in the highest football league in Germany.
Klavan's headed goal came in the 55th minute after a corner kick. Klavan's strike made the score 1-1, which was also the final score.
His club, FC Augsburg, one of the poorest clubs in the league, is in ninth place out of 18 teams after 23 games. There are 11 more games in league play.