2020–21 Slovak First Football League

The 2020–21 Slovak First Football League (known as the Slovak Fortuna liga^[5] for sponsorship reasons) was the 28th season of first-tier football league in Slovakia since its establishment in 1993.

Slovak Super Liga

Season	2020–21
Dates	8 August 2020[1] – 22 May 2021[2][3]
Champions	Slovan Bratislava
Champions League	Slovan Bratislava
Europa Conference League	DAC Dunajská Streda Spartak Trnava MŠK Žilina
Matches played	197
Goals scored	574 (2.91 per match)
Top goalscorer	Dawid Kurminowski (19 goals)
Biggest home win	DAC Dunajská Streda 6–0 Sereď (9 August 2020) DAC Dunajská Streda 6–0 Nitra (15 August 2020)
Biggest away win	Nitra 0–5 Slovan Bratislava (8 August 2020) Sereď 0–5 Slovan Bratislava (28 February 2021)
Highest scoring	Žilina 6–2 Zemplín Michalovce (30 August 2020) Sereď 2–6 Spartak Trnava (5 December 2020) Trenčín 2–6 Slovan Bratislava (14 March 2021) Žilina 5–3 Trenčín (8 May 2021)
Highest attendance	6,297 DAC Dunajská Streda 2–1 Spartak Trnava (22 August 2020)[4]
Lowest attendance	0[A] All matches from 1 October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
← 2019–20 2021–22 → All statistics correct as of 24 May 2021.

Slovan Bratislava were the defending champions for the second successive year, after picking up the domestic double in the previous season. Slovan successfully defended their title, winning their third consecutive title and record-extending 11th Slovak title overall.

In this season, teams were allowed to make five substitutions during matches in a maximum of three stoppages in play for one team.^[6]

Teams

Twelve teams competed in the league – all sides from the previous season.

Stadiums and locations

Trenčín

Senica

Sereď

DAC Dunajská Streda

Ružomberok

Slovan

Spartak

Žilina

Zlaté Moravce

Nitra

Michalovce

Pohronie

Location of teams in Fortuna liga 2020–21

AS Trenčín	FC DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda	FK Pohronie	MFK Zemplín Michalovce
Štadión Sihoť UEFA	MOL Aréna UEFA	Mestský štadión UEFA	Mestský futbalový štadión UEFA
Capacity: 4,200 (10,000 planned)	Capacity: 12,700	Capacity: 2,309	Capacity: 4,440
FK Senica	MFK Ružomberok	MŠK Žilina	ŠK Slovan Bratislava
OMS Arena UEFA	Štadión pod Čebraťom	Štadión pod Dubňom UEFA	Tehelné pole UEFA
Capacity: 5,070	Capacity: 4,817	Capacity: 11,253	Capacity: 22,500
FC Spartak Trnava	ŠKF Sereď	FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce	FC Nitra
ŠAM - City Arena UEFA	Štadión FC ViOn UEFA	Štadión FC ViOn UEFA	Štadión pod Zoborom UEFA
Capacity: 19,200	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 7,480

Personnel and kits

Team	President	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
DAC Dunajská Streda	Oszkár Világi	Antal Németh (carateker)	Zsolt Kalmár	macron	Kukkonia
Nitra	Ladislav Palaky	Michal Ščasný	Erik Jendrišek	Adidas
Pohronie	Jozef Urblík	Jan Kameník	Petr Pavlík	Erreà	REMESLO
Ružomberok	Milan Fiľo	Ján Haspra	Ján Maslo	Adidas	MAESTRO
Senica	Oldřich Duda[7]	Karol Praženica	Juraj Piroska	hummel	KOMPLEXX GROUP SK
Sereď	Róbert Stareček	Gergely Geri	Ľubomír Michalík	Nike
Slovan Bratislava	Ivan Kmotrík	Vladimír Weiss	Vasil Bozhikov	Adidas	Niké
Spartak Trnava	Milan Cuninka	Michal Gašparík	Dobrivoj Rusov	Adidas
Trenčín	Jozef Liptovský	Juraj Ančic (carateker)	Aschraf El Mahdioui	macron	ORION Tip
Zemplín Michalovce	Ján Sabol	Anton Šoltis	Igor Žofčák	Adidas	ISDB, St. Nicolaus
Zlaté Moravce	Karol Škula	Ľuboš Benkovský	Tomáš Ďubek	Erreà	ViOn
Žilina	Jozef Antošík	Pavol Staňo	Jakub Paur	Nike	Preto

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Senica	Patrik Durkáč	End of a contract	14 July 2020	Pre-season	Anton Šoltis	14 July 2020[8]
Trenčín	Juraj Ančic	End of interim spell	17 July 2020		Stijn Vreven	17 July 2020[9]
Slovan Bratislava	Ján Kozák	Released	4 September 2020[10]	3	Darko Milanič	7 September 2020[11]
Spartak Trnava	Marián Šarmír	Released	14 September 2020	6	Norbert Hrnčár	14 September 2020[12]
Pohronie	Mikuláš Radványi	Released	9 October 2020[13]	12	Jan Kameník	12 October 2020[14]
Nitra	Gergely Geri	Own request	30 November 2020	7	Ivan Galád (interim)	1 December 2020[15]
Sereď	Peter Lérant	End of a contract	15 December 2020[16]	7	František Šturma	29 December 2020[17]
Spartak Trnava	Norbert Hrnčár	Released	31 December 2020	5	Michal Gašparík	1 January 2021[18]
Nitra	Ivan Galád	End of interim spell	3 January 2021	8	Michal Ščasný	3 January 2021[19]
Nitra	Michal Ščasný	Released	22 January 2021[20]	8	Peter Lérant	22 January 2021[21]
Senica	Anton Šoltis	Released	20 February 2021[22]	12	Karol Praženica	23 February 2021
Sereď	František Šturma	Health and family reasons	16 February 2021	9	Ján Blaháč (interim)	16 February 2021[23]
Sereď	Ján Blaháč	Interim	8 March 2021[24]	10	Gergely Geri	8 March 2021
Nitra	Peter Lérant	Released	25 March 2021[25]	11	Michal Ščasný	26 March 2021[26]
Michalovce	Jozef Majoroš	Released	13 April 2021	11	Anton Šoltis	13 April 2021[27]
Dunajská Streda	Bernd Storck	Released	21 April 2021	2	Antal Németh (interim)	21 April 2021[28]
Trenčín	Stijn Vreven	Released	27 April 2021	6	Juraj Ančic (interim)	27 April 2021[29]
Slovan Bratislava	Darko Milanič	Released	10 May 2021	1	Vladimír Weiss	12 May 2021[30]

Regular stage

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Slovan Bratislava	22	17	3	2	54	12	+42	54	Qualification for the championship group
2	DAC Dunajská Streda	22	13	5	4	48	28	+20	44
3	Žilina	22	11	4	7	49	33	+16	37
4	Spartak Trnava	22	11	2	9	32	29	+3	35
5	Zlaté Moravce	22	9	6	7	38	29	+9	33
6	Trenčín	22	7	7	8	30	38	−8	28
7	Ružomberok	22	5	8	9	31	37	−6	23	Qualification for the relegation group
8	Nitra	22	6	4	12	21	38	−17	22
9	Zemplín Michalovce	22	5	7	10	22	42	−20	22
10	Sereď	22	5	7	10	22	39	−17	22
11	Senica	22	5	6	11	23	40	−17	21
12	Pohronie	22	3	11	8	27	32	−5	20

Source: Fortuna Liga (in Slovak)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Play-off.

Results

Each team plays home-and-away against every other team in the league, for a total of 22 matches each.

Home \ Away	DAC	NIT	POH	RUŽ	SEN	SER	SLO	TRN	TRE	ZMI	ZLM	ŽIL
DAC Dunajská Streda		6–0	0–0	3–2	2–0	6–0	1–1	2–1	3–1	2–1	1–3	1–1
Nitra	0–1		3–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	0–5	0–1	1–2	1–1	0–1	0–3
Pohronie	1–2	3–1		2–2	1–2	2–2	1–2	3–3	0–1	1–1	2–2	2–1
Ružomberok	1–1	3–0	0–0		2–3	0–0	0–0	0–1	2–2	4–0	2–1	2–1
Senica	2–4	0–0	1–1	1–2		2–2	0–3	0–2	2–3	3–0	1–1	0–4
Sereď	1–0	1–2	0–2	0–0	4–0		0–5	2–6	1–1	1–1	1–2	3–2
Slovan Bratislava	3–1	0–1	1–0	5–0	2–0	3–0		2–0	2–0	5–0	2–1	3–2
Spartak Trnava	0–2	0–2	1–1	3–1	1–0	0–2	0–3		2–0	1–2	1–0	2–1
Trenčín	3–3	3–2	1–1	3–1	0–1	1–0	1–2	2–0		2–2	1–1	2–4
Zemplín Michalovce	2–4	1–0	2–0	4–3	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–1		1–0	1–1
Zlaté Moravce	1–2	3–1	2–2	3–1	2–2	1–0	2–1	2–4	5–0	0–0		4–0
Žilina	4–1	1–2	2–1	3–2	3–1	0–0	2–2	2–1	2–0	6–2	4–1

Source: Fortuna Liga (in Slovak)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SLO	DAC	TRN	ŽIL	ZLM	TRE
1	Slovan Bratislava (C)	32	22	5	5	78	28	+50	71	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round		—	0–1	1–2	2–2	4–1	2–1
2	DAC Dunajská Streda	32	19	8	5	66	38	+28	65	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round		2–2	—	2–0	2–1	2–0	2–0
3	Spartak Trnava	32	17	4	11	48	37	+11	55	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round		3–0	3–2	—	1–1	3–0	2–0
4	Žilina	32	15	7	10	73	52	+21	52	Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs		2–3	3–3	2–1	—	5–1	5–3
5	Zlaté Moravce	32	11	7	14	42	51	−9	40			0–4	0–1	0–0	1–0	—	1–0
6	Trenčín	32	8	8	16	42	61	−19	32			2–6	1–1	0–1	2–3	3–0	—

Source: Fortuna Liga (in Slovak)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Play-off.
(C) Champions

Relegation group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		SER	RUŽ	POH	ZMI	SEN	NIT
7	Sereď	32	11	8	13	37	48	−11	41	Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs		—	1–0	0–1	2–0	4–1	2–1
8	Ružomberok	32	10	9	13	41	44	−3	39			2–1	—	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–0
9	Pohronie	32	8	14	10	38	38	0	38			1–2	1–0	—	0–0	3–0	0–0
10	Zemplín Michalovce	32	8	11	13	34	53	−19	35			2–2	2–1	1–2	—	1–0	1–1
11	Senica (O)	32	8	9	15	31	51	−20	33	Qualification for the relegation play-offs		1–0	0–1	0–0	1–1	—	1–0
12	Nitra (R)	32	7	6	19	26	55	−29	27	Relegation to the 2. Liga		0–1	1–0	2–3	0–4	0–3	—

Source: Fortuna Liga (in Slovak)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Play-off.
(O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Europa Conference League play-offs

Should one of the top 3 teams win the 2020–21 Slovak Cup, Europa Conference League qualification playoffs will be held among the 4th, 5th, 6th team in the championship group and the top team of the relegation round. On 19 May 2021, Slovan Bratislava, who have won the league title, also won the cup, thus confirming the need of playoffs.

The 4th team play the top team of the relegation group and the 5th play the 6th in the semifinals. Winners of the semifinals play the final to determine the Europa Conference League qualification spot. Europa Conference League qualification playoff games are one-leg and played at the home pitch of the higher-ranked team. The winners qualify for the first qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League.

Semi-finals

25 May 2021 (2021-05-25)

19:00

MŠK Žilina	4–2	ŠKF Sereď
Kurminowski 9' Rusnák 32' Bernát 38' Slebodník 87'	Report	Bušnja 60' Jureškin 83'

Štadión pod Dubňom, Žilina

Attendance: 164

Referee: Michal Smolák

25 May 2021 (2021-05-25)

19:00

FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce	2–0	AS Trenčín
Balaj 51' Švec 57'	Report

ViOn Aréna, Zlaté Moravce

Attendance: 217

Referee: Peter Kráľovič

Final

28 May 2021 (2021-05-28)

19:00

MŠK Žilina	3−2 (a.e.t.)	FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce
Bichakhchyan 43' (pen.), 45+8' (pen.) Jibril 101'	Report	Balaj 13' Hrnčár 23'

Štadión pod Dubňom, Žilina

Attendance: 340

Referee: Filip Glova

Relegation play-offs

The team which finished 11th faced the 2nd team from 2. Liga 2020–21 for one spot in the top flight the next season.

All times are CEST (UTC+2).

First leg

25 May 2021 (2021-05-25)

17:00

MFK Dukla Banská Bystrica	1–2	FK Senica
Laksik 63'	Report	Malec 23' Malec 49'

MFK Lokomotíva Zvolen Stadium, Zvolen

Attendance: 350

Referee: Michal Očenáš

Second leg

28 May 2021 (2021-05-28)

17:00

FK Senica	1–1	MFK Dukla Banská Bystrica
Malec 41'	Report	Gamboš 89' (o.g.)

Štadión FK Senica, Senica

Attendance: 500

Referee: Ivan Kružliak

Position by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological progress, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for matchday 13, but then postponed and played between days 16 and 17, it will be added to the standings for day 16.

	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
	Qualification for the Europa Conference League
	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
	Relegation to the 2. liga

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32
Slovan Bratislava	2	1	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
DAC Dunajská Streda	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Spartak Trnava	4	3	2	3	5	6	5	3	5	5	4	6	5	4	6	5	5	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3
Žilina	3	4	4	4	3	4	4	6	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4
Zlaté Moravce	7	8	5	6	7	7	10	7	8	8	6	5	4	5	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Trenčín	6	7	10	9	11	10	8	8	11	9	12	10	11	12	10	10	10	10	8	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Sereď	12	5	6	7	4	3	3	4	6	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	9	8	8	10	7	9	7	7	7	8	8	7	8	7
Ružomberok	5	10	11	10	9	11	7	9	7	6	5	7	7	7	5	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	11	8	9	9	8	7	7	8	7	8
Pohronie	8	9	9	5	6	8	9	10	12	10	11	12	12	11	12	12	12	9	7	10	11	12	10	7	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9
Zemplín Michalovce	9	11	12	12	12	12	12	11	10	12	10	9	10	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	12	9	9	12	11	11	12	12	11	11	11	10
Senica	10	12	7	11	10	9	11	12	9	11	9	11	9	9	9	9	9	12	12	12	10	11	12	10	12	12	10	10	10	10	10	11
Nitra	11	6	8	8	8	5	6	5	3	4	7	4	6	6	7	7	8	8	10	9	9	8	8	11	10	10	11	11	12	12	12	12

Source: Fortunaliga.sk

Season statistics

As of 23 May 2021

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[31]
1	Dawid Kurminowski1	Žilina	19
2	Eric Ramirez	DAC Dunajská Streda	16
3	Filip Balaj2	Zlaté Moravce	14
	Rafael Ratão	Slovan Bratislava
5	Zsolt Kalmár	DAC Dunajská Streda	13
6	Hamza Čataković	Trenčín	12
7	Marko Divković	DAC Dunajská Streda	11
	Martin Regáli	Ružomberok
9	Dávid Holman	Slovan Bratislava	10
10	Vahan Bichakhchyan1	Žilina	9
	David Strelec	Slovan Bratislava
	Bamidele Yusuf	Trnava

¹ plus 1 play-off goal
² plus 2 play-off goals

Hat-tricks

Round	Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
7	Ladislav Almási	Ružomberok	Zemplín Michalovce	4–0 (H)	19 September 2020	[32]
10	Filip Balaj	Zlaté Moravce	Nitra	3–1 (H)	17 October 2020	[33]
13	Filip Balaj	Zlaté Moravce	Trenčín	5–0 (H)	7 November 2020	[34]
18	Martin Regáli	Ružomberok	Zemplín Michalovce	3–4 (A)	16 December 2020	[35]
CH.10	Dawid Kurminowski	Žilina	Zlaté Moravce	5–1 (H)	22 May 2021	[36]

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[37]
1	Dominik Greif	Slovan Bratislava	12
2	Mathew Yakubu	Sereď	10
	Martin Jedlička	DAC Dunajská Streda
4	Adrián Chovan	Zlaté Moravce	8
5	Dobrivoj Rusov	Spartak Trnava	7
	Libor Hrdlička	Pohronie
7	Matej Marković	Zemplín Michalovce	6
	Dávid Šípoš	Nitra
9	Matúš Macík	Ružomberok	5
10	Tomáš Fryšták	Senica	4
	Olivier Vliegen	Senica
	Samuel Petráš	Žilina
	Ivan Krajčírik	MFK Ružomberok
	Dominik Takáč	Trnava

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 10^[38]
  • Joeri de Kamps (Slovan Bratislava)
  • Martin Mikovič (Spartak Trnava)

• Most red cards: 2^[38]
  • Tomáš Hučko (Sereď)
  • Abdul Zubairu (Trenčín)
  • Aschraf El Mahdioui (Trenčín)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 84^[39]
  • Sereď

• Most red cards: 6^[40]
  • Spartak Trnava

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month		Goal of the Month		References
	Player	Club	Player	Club
August	Zsolt Kalmár	DAC Dunajská Streda	Eric Ramírez	DAC Dunajská Streda	[41][42]
September	Ladislav Almási	Ružomberok			[43][44]
October	Filip Balaj	Zlaté Moravce	Andrija Balić		[45][46]
November	David Hrnčár 1		Kyriakos Savvidis	Spartak Trnava	[47]
December			Erik Daniel	Slovan Bratislava	[48]
February/March	Eric Ramírez	DAC Dunajská Streda	Zsolt Kalmár	DAC Dunajská Streda	[49][50]
April	not announced		Andrija Balić	DAC Dunajska Streda	[51]
May			Alex Iván	Sereď

¹ Vote of the player of the month was united for November and December.

Annual awards

Team of the Season

Greif

Kiwior

César

Bozhikov

De Marco

Kamps

Kalmár

Ratão

Strelec

Ramírez

Hrnčár

Team of the Season was:^[52]

• Goalkeeper: Dominik Greif (Slovan Bratislava)
• Defence: Vernon De Marco (Slovan Bratislava), Jakub Piotr Kiwior (Žilina), Vasil Bozhikov (Slovan Bratislava), César Blackman (DAC Dunajská Streda)
• Midfield: David Hrnčár (Zlaté Moravce), Joeri de Kamps (Slovan Bratislava), Zsolt Kalmár (DAC Dunajská Streda), Rafael Ratão (Slovan Bratislava)
• Attack: David Strelec (Slovan Bratislava), Eric Ramírez (DAC Dunajská Streda)

Top Eleven U-21

Source:^[52]

• Goalkeeper: Samuel Petráš (Žilina)
• Defence: César Blackman (DAC Dunajská Streda), Jakub Piotr Kiwior (Žilina), Branislav Sluka (Žilina)
• Midfield: David Strelec (Slovan Bratislava), Saymon Cabral (Spartak Trnava), András Schäfer (DAC Dunajská Streda), Dávid Ďuriš (Žilina), Marko Divković (DAC Dunajská Streda)
• Attack: Dawid Kurminowski (Žilina), Eric Ramírez (DAC Dunajská Streda)

Individual awards

Manager of the season

Pavol Staňo (Žilina)

Player of the Year

Zsolt Kalmár (DAC Dunajská Streda)

Young player of the Year

David Hrnčár (Zlaté Moravce)

See also

• 2020–21 Slovak Cup
• 2020–21 2. Liga (Slovakia)
• List of Slovak football transfers summer 2020
• List of Slovak football transfers winter 2020–21
• List of foreign Slovak First League players

Notes

1. Matches have been played behind closed doors without any spectators.