MSK Zilina

Also written as Zilina.

The club

MSK Zilina should not be confused with two other well-known Slovak clubs. It is not Spartak Trnava, who are based in the separate city of Trnava in western Slovakia, play at the Anton Malatinsky Stadium, won five Czechoslovak championships between 1967 and 1973 plus a Slovak title in 2018, and whose principal rivalry is with Slovan Bratislava rather than with Zilina. Nor is it Slovan Bratislava, the club based in the Slovak capital, who are the biggest and most decorated club in the country's history, sit above Zilina at the top of the all-time Slovak league points table with 1,974 points to Zilina's 1,781, and beat Zilina in the 2011 Slovak Cup final and the 2010 Slovak Super Cup. Zilina is a distinct club from the city of Zilina in northern Slovakia.

The club traces its history to the end of 1908, when it was founded under the Hungarian name Zsolnai Testgyakorlok Kore and officially registered on 20 June 1909. It went through a long series of name changes reflecting the political history of the region: ZsTS Zsolna from 1910, SK Zilina from 1919, Sokol Slovena Zilina from 1948, Jiskra Slovena Zilina from 1953, DSO Dynamo Zilina from 1956, Jednota Zilina from 1963, TJ ZVL Zilina from 1967, SK Zilina from 1990 and finally MSK Zilina from 1995, the name it has carried since.

The home ground is the Stadion pod Dubnom, with a capacity of 10,280. It underwent a major renovation between 2006 and September 2009, and between 2014 and 2015 it served as the home stadium of the Slovakia national team while the national stadium in Bratislava was unavailable. The club's home colours are yellow and green, the away kit is white and green, and there is also a black third kit. Zilina play in the Slovak top flight, currently branded the Niké liga, having been renamed the 2026-27 Niké liga; the head coach is Vladimir Vesely, a Slovak appointed on 12 August 2026 after Pavol Stano was sacked that same day.

Recent seasons

In 2024/25 Zilina finished second in the Slovak championship group with 54 points from 32 matches, 15 wins, 9 draws and 8 losses, 55 goals scored and 40 conceded, behind champions Slovan Bratislava on 72 points and above third-placed Spartak Trnava on 52. That runners-up finish earned Zilina Conference League qualification. In 2025/26 Zilina finished fourth in the championship group with 52 points from 32 matches, 15 wins, 7 draws and 10 losses, 59 goals for and 41 against, with Slovan Bratislava champions again on 68 points and Spartak Trnava third on 56 and qualifying for the Conference League second qualifying round. Zilina's own European place for 2026/27 came instead from winning the Slovak Cup, which carried a Europa League first qualifying round berth. As of 26 August 2026 in the 2026/27 season, Zilina sat fourth in a twelve-team top flight with 10 points from five matches, three wins, one draw and one loss, 12 goals for and 11 against; Spartak Trnava led the table with 13 points from five matches. The league splits into a six-team championship group and a six-team relegation group after the regular season, which concludes in May 2027, with a winter break from 13 December 2026 to 7 February 2027.

Honours and landmarks

Zilina have won the Slovak First Football League seven times: 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2006/07, 2009/10, 2011/12 and 2016/17, and were runners-up in 2004/05, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2014/15, 2019/20 and 2024/25. They rank second on the Slovak league's all-time points table with 1,781 points across 32 seasons, behind only Slovan Bratislava. They have won the Slovak Cup twice, in 2011/12 and again in 2025/26, and were runners-up in 2010/11, losing that final to Slovan Bratislava. Before the Slovak league era the club won the Czechoslovak championship twice, in 1927/28 and 1928/29, were Czechoslovak Cup runners-up in 1961/62, and won the second-tier 1.SNL in 1981/82. The club were also Mitropa Cup runners-up twice, in 1974 and 1983.

Notable scorelines

The club's best-remembered European run is the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage, reached by eliminating Sparta Prague in the play-off round. Zilina were drawn into Group F alongside Chelsea, Marseille and Spartak Moscow and lost all six of their group matches, becoming only the twelfth team in Champions League history to do so. Chelsea won 4-1 away at the Stadion pod Dubnom on 15 September 2010, Michael Essien opening the scoring after 13 minutes and Nicolas Anelka adding two more inside half an hour before Daniel Sturridge scored his first Champions League goal for Chelsea and Tomas Oravec grabbed a consolation for Zilina; Chelsea then won the return 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on 23 November 2010, Sturridge and Florent Malouda scoring. Marseille beat Zilina 7-0 away at the Stadion pod Dubnom on 4 November 2010, described as the biggest away win of that season's Champions League group stage. The exact scorelines of the reverse Marseille fixture and both legs against Spartak Moscow were not established from the sources read here.

Further back, in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup Zilina reached the group stage and beat Aston Villa 2-1 away at Villa Park. In the 1961/62 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final, as Dynamo Zilina, they beat Fiorentina 3-2 at home on 21 February 1962 before losing 2-0 in Florence on 27 February, going out 4-3 on aggregate. Domestically, Zilina won the 2025/26 Slovak Cup final 3-1 against Kosice at the Stadion pod Dubnom on 1 May 2026, Michal Fasko, Filip Kasa and Marko Roginic scoring in front of 9,723 spectators, having beaten Zeleziarne Podbrezova 3-1 on aggregate in the semi-final, AS Trencin 3-0 in the quarter-final and MFK Skalica 3-1 in the round of 16.

European record

Zilina's earliest European involvement, as Dynamo Zilina, included Mitropa Cup runner-up finishes in 1974 and 1983 and the 1961/62 Cup Winners' Cup run to the quarter-finals, lost to Fiorentina. In the modern era the club has been a regular European qualifier as a consequence of its league and cup finishes: the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage, in which they beat Aston Villa at Villa Park, and the 2010/11 Champions League group stage described above, reached after eliminating Sparta Prague in the play-off round and followed by a group-stage campaign in which Zilina lost all six matches against Chelsea, Marseille and Spartak Moscow. Fuller detail on Zilina's European qualifying campaigns between these landmark years, including exact rounds and opponents through the 2010s and early 2020s, was not established from the sources read here.

For 2026/27, Zilina entered the Europa League first qualifying round as Slovak Cup winners and were drawn against Hajduk Split of Croatia, losing the first leg 0-2 away on 9 July 2026 before winning the second leg 2-1 at home on 16 July 2026, going out 3-2 on aggregate. As a beaten Europa League qualifier they transferred into the Conference League Main Path second qualifying round with a UEFA coefficient of 5.500. The identity of their second qualifying round opponent, and the outcome of that tie, were not established from the sources read here.

Head-to-head notes

Zilina's most consequential recent meeting with Slovan Bratislava came in the 2010/11 Slovak Cup final on 8 May 2011, which finished 3-3 after extra time with Slovan winning 5-4 on penalties; the two clubs had also met in the Slovak Super Cup on 4 July 2010, which Zilina won on penalties after a 1-1 draw, Stefan Zosak scoring for Zilina in the 49th minute. Slovan Bratislava sit above Zilina on the Slovak league's all-time points table and have finished champions ahead of Zilina in both of the two most recent completed seasons covered here, 2024/25 and 2025/26. No head-to-head record specifically between Zilina and Spartak Trnava, whose main rivalry is with Slovan Bratislava rather than with Zilina, was established from the sources read here.

Quotes

No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here.

Right now (2026/27)

Vladimir Vesely has been head coach since 12 August 2026, replacing Pavol Stano, who was sacked the same day. In the Niké liga, Zilina were fourth as of 26 August 2026 with 10 points from five matches, three wins, one draw and one loss, 12 goals for and 11 against, with Spartak Trnava leading on 13 points from five games. In Europe, Zilina's Europa League campaign ended in the first qualifying round, beaten 3-2 on aggregate by Hajduk Split of Croatia after losing the away leg 0-2 on 9 July 2026 and winning the home leg 2-1 on 16 July 2026; that defeat sent them into the Conference League Main Path second qualifying round as a UEFA coefficient 5.500 entrant, but the opponent and result of that tie were not established from the sources read here. Zilina's summer transfer business and full current squad details beyond a 15 July 2026 listing were not established from the sources read here.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.