2018–19 Slovak First Football League

The 2018–19 Slovak First Football League was the 26th season of first-tier football league in Slovakia since its establishment in 1993. FC Spartak Trnava were the defending champions after winning their 1st Slovak championship in the previous season.

Teams

A total of 12 teams are contesting the league, including 11 sides from the 2017–18 season and one promoted from the 2. liga.

FC Spartak Trnava
ŠK Slovan Bratislava
FC DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda
MŠK Žilina
AS Trenčín
MFK Ružomberok
FC Nitra
MFK Zemplín Michalovce
ŽP Šport Podbrezová
FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce
FK Senica
ŠKF iClinic Sereď
Stadiums and locations

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2017–18 season
AS Trenčín	Trenčín	Stadium Myjava		5th in Fortuna Liga
DAC Dunajská Streda	Dunajská Streda	MOL Aréna		3rd in Fortuna Liga
FK Železiarne Podbrezová	Podbrezová	ZELPO Aréna		9th in Fortuna Liga
FK Senica	Senica	OMS Arena		11th in Fortuna Liga
Michalovce	Michalovce	Mestský futbalový štadión		8th in Fortuna Liga
MFK Ružomberok	Ružomberok	Štadión pod Čebraťom		6th in Fortuna Liga
FC Nitra	Nitra	Štadión pod Zoborom		7th in Fortuna Liga
ŠKF Sereď	Sereď	Štadión pod Zoborom		2. Liga Champion
MŠK Žilina	Žilina	Štadión pod Dubňom		4th in Fortuna Liga
Slovan Bratislava	Bratislava	Tehelné pole		2nd in Fortuna Liga
Spartak Trnava	Trnava	Anton Malatinský Stadium
ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Zlaté Moravce	FC ViOn Stadium		10th in Fortuna Liga

AS Trenčín	Dunajská Streda	Podbrezová	Michalovce
Stadium Myjava	MOL Aréna UEFA	ZELPO Aréna	Mestský futbalový štadión
Capacity: 2,709	Capacity: 12,700	Capacity: 4,061	Capacity: 4,440

FK Senica	MFK Ružomberok	MŠK Žilina	Slovan Bratislava
OMS Arena UEFA	Štadión pod Čebraťom	Štadión pod Dubňom UEFA	Tehelné pole UEFA
Capacity: 4,500	Capacity: 4,817	Capacity: 11,258	Capacity: 22,500

Spartak Trnava	ŠKF Sereď	Zlaté Moravce	FC Nitra
Anton Malatinský Stadium UEFA	Štadión pod Zoborom UEFA	Štadión FC ViOn	Štadión pod Zoborom UEFA
Capacity: 19,200	Capacity: 7,480	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 7,480

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Spartak Trnava	Nestor El Maestro	End of contract	21 5 2018	Pre-season	Radoslav Látal	8 6 2018
MŠK Žilina	Adrián Guľa	Signed with Slovakia U21	28 5 2018	Pre-season	Jaroslav Kentoš	28 5 2018
MFK Ružomberok	Norbert Hrnčár	End of contract	28 5 2018	Pre-season	David Holoubek	4 6 2018
AS Trenčín	Vladimír Cifranič	Become assistant	2 6 2018	Pre-season	Ricardo Moniz	2 6 2018
Dunajská Streda	Marco Rossi	Signed with Hungary	20 6 2018	Pre-season	Peter Hyballa	16 7 2018
FK Senica	Ton Caanen	Become general manager	3 8 2018	10	Frederico Ricardo	3 8 2018
ŠKF Sereď	Michal Gašparík	Sacked	4 9 2018	8	Karel Stromšík	4 9 2018
AS Trenčín	Ricardo Moniz	Resigned	28 10 2018	6	Vladimír Cifranič	28 10 2018
FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Juraj Jarábek	Resigned	5 11 2018	12	Branislav Mráz	5 11 2018
FK Železiarne Podbrezová	Marek Fabuľa	Sacked	27 11 2018	11	Gergely Geri	27 11 2018
FC Spartak Trnava	Radoslav Látal	Resigned	13 12 2018	8	Michal Ščasný	22 12 2018
FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce	Branislav Mráz	End of interim spell	13 12 2018	12	Karol Praženica	13 12 2018
FK Železiarne Podbrezová	Gergely Geri	End of interim spell	4 1 2019	10	Vladimír Veselý	4 1 2019
FK Senica	Frederico Ricardo	Released	9 1 2019	11	Ricardo Chéu	9 1 2019
FC Nitra	Ivan Galád	Released	13 3 2019	8	Michal Kuruc	13 3 2019
AS Trenčín	Vladimír Cifranič	End by own request	20 3 2019	9	Matthias Kohler	20 3 2019
AS Trenčín	Matthias Kohler	Released	7 5 2019	11	Ivan Galád	7 5 2019

Personnel and kits

Regular season

League table

Results

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

Championship group

Relegation group

Europa League play-offs

Should one of the top 3 teams have won the 2018–19 Slovak Cup, Europa League qualification playoffs would have been held among the 4th, 5th, 6th team in the championship group and the top team of the relegation round. The 4th team played the top team of the relegation group and the 5th played the 6th in the semifinals. Winners of the semifinals would play the final to determine the Europa League qualification spot. Europa League qualification playoff games would be one-leg and played at the home pitch of the higher-ranked team. The winners would qualify for the first qualifying round of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League. On 1 May 2019, Spartak Trnava, who didn't qualify for the championship group, won the cup, thus eliminating the need of playoffs.

Relegation play-offs

Team placed 11th in the relegation match faced 2nd team from 2. Liga 2018–19 for one spot in the next season.
All times are CEST.

First leg

Second leg

''4–3 on aggregate.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Andraž Šporar	ŠK Slovan	29
2	Róbert Boženík	Žilina	13
3	Moha	Slovan	12
3	Hamza Čataković	AS Trenčín	12
5	Kristopher Vida	DAC D.Streda	11
6	Vakoun Issouf Bayo	DAC D.Streda	10
6	Tomáš Vestenický	Nitra	10
8	Izzy Tandir	Ružomberok	9
8	Michal Škvarka	Žilina	9
8	Kubilay Yilmaz	Trnava	9
8	Tomáš Ďubek	Z.Moravce	9
8	Kristi Qose	Ružomberok	9
8	Joey Sleegers ^a	Trenčín	9

^a Included 1 play-off goal

Top assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Moha	Slovan	15
2	Michal Škvarka	Žilina	10
3	Dejan Dražić	Slovan	8
3	Tihomir Kostadinov	Ružomberok	8
4	Erik Daniel	Ružomberok	7
4	Erick Davis	DAC D.Streda	7
4	Zezinho	Senica	7
7	Andrej Fábry	FC Nitra	6
7	Denis Ventura	Sereď	6
7	Zinedin Mustedanagić	Ružomberok	6
7	Aleksandar Čavrić	Slovan	6
7	Andraž Šporar	Slovan	6

Hat-tricks

Round	Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
7	Tomáš Vestenický	FC Nitra	Zlaté Moravce	4–1	1 September 2018
18	Andrej Fábry	FC Nitra	Zlaté Moravce	0–3	8 December 2018
8.CH	Andraž Šporar	Slovan	Žilina	6–2	11 May 2019

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Matúš Macík	Ružomberok	13
2	Martin Jedlička	D.Streda	12
3	Dominik Holec	Žilina	9
3	Dominik Greif	Slovan	9
5	Matúš Kira	Michalovce	8
6	Federico Taborda	Senica	7
7	Igor Šemrinec	Trenčín	5
8	Lukáš Hroššo	Nitra	4
8	Pavol Penksa	Sereď	4
8	Dobrivoj Rusov	Trnava	4
8	Martin Vantruba	Podbrezová	4
8	Adrián Chovan	Z.Moravce	4

Discipline

Player

Most yellow cards: 13
* Ľubomír Michalík
Most red cards: 2
* Macdonald Ngwa Niba
* Yani Urdinov
* Ivan Diaz
* Erik Grendel
Club
Most yellow cards: 87
*ŠKF Sereď
Most red cards: 5
*AS Trenčín
Awards

Player of the Month

Month	Player	Club	Ref
August	Erik Pačinda	Dunajská Streda
September	Tomáš Vestenický	FC Nitra
October	Róbert Boženík	MŠK Žilina
Nov/Dec	Andraž Šporar	Slovan Bratislava
March	Matúš Kira	Michalovce
April	Martin Jedlička	Dunajská Streda
May	Andraž Šporar	Slovan Bratislava

Top Eleven

Source:

Goalkeeper: Dominik Greif
Defence: Erick Davis, Kristián Koštrna, Dominik Kružliak, Vasil Bozhikov
Midfield: Miroslav Káčer, Marin Ljubičić, Zsolt Kalmár, Aleksandar Čavrić, Moha
Attack: Andraž Šporar
Top Eleven U-21