As far as most football fans are concerned, this season’s European club competitions will begin when the draws for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League group stages later this week.
But while UEFA’s showpiece events may end in glitz and glamour and a shower of tickertape as the trophies are lifted with hundreds of millions watching on TV nine months from now, they start in more modest settings.
This season’s Champions League tournament kicked off in Panevazys, the fifth biggest city in Lithuania, on July 9, just 38 days after Real Madrid won the 2023-24 final in London.
In the 7,000-capacity Aukstaitija Stadium, FK Panevezys powered to a 3-0 win over HJK of Finland in a scene that could hardly be further removed from Wembley Stadium. The joy was short-lived for the Lithuanians, who exited the Champions League at the next hurdle against Poland’s Jagiellonia Bialystok before losing in the Europa League to Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Here are some of the most interesting results, teams and storylines that you’ve already missed this season, proving that there is more to European football than the household names of the continent’s biggest clubs.
The darlings of the Conference League’s first round were Bruno’s Magpies. The club, which was founded in 2013 as a pub team for drinkers at Bruno’s Bar in Gibraltar, shocked Derry City 3-2 on aggregate, winning 2-0 at home and resisting an Irish fightback thanks to an extra-time goal from Evan De Haro in the return leg.
“This is definitely my biggest win as a coach and a result that will stay with me for a very long time,” Magpies coach Nathan Rooney told ESPN.
“The speed of progress at the club has been unimaginable. The pub team tag is an important part of the foundation of the club and gives Magpies a unique and special story. However, I came to make a difference; not only to create a plucky pub team with the odd bit of success, but to take the club to another level.”
The European adventure ended at the hands of FC Copenhagen, as the Magpies lost 8-1 on aggregate to a team that faced Manchester City in last season’s Champions League knockout phase. But the Magpies still made their mark, with Olatunde Bayode scoring a consolation goal at Parken, a stadium with a capacity of 38,000, a little more than the entire population of Gibraltar.
In spite of that, there is still hope that the British Overseas Territory on the southern coast of Spain could still have a team in the Conference League proper this season. Lincoln Red Imps take a 2-1 aggregate advantage into Thursday’s second leg against Larne, who they will be hoping to deny the chance to become the first-ever team from Northern Ireland to make the group stage of a European competition.
Gibraltar, however, is a sprawling metropolis compared to the town of Vikingur, another minnow club punching above their weight in Europe despite being on the very fringes of UEFA’s jurisdiction. The club from the Faroe Islands play in the village of Norðragøta (population 640), the smallest settlement to host European football this season. Vikingur beat Liepaja of Latvia before being dispatched by Belgian side Gent.
San Marino has what is officially the world’s worst men’s national team, having been rooted to the bottom of the FIFA Ranking since 2018.
However, there was major cause to celebrate this summer in the microstate landlocked by northern Italy, as one of their clubs secured their first-ever European win after 13 consecutive years of playing in continental competitions.
La Fiorita came from behind to win their Conference League first qualifying round tie against Isloch — the club that briefly gained fame during the first COVID-19 lockdown when the Belarussian Premier League was one of the only leagues still running, attracting fans from around the world as a result.
La Fiorita bounced back from a 1-0 loss at home to level the tie in the away leg, played in Hungary due to sanctions against Belarus, and then won a penalty shootout 4-2.
“It’s an honour and a privilege for us Sammarinese clubs to compete with the biggest clubs in Europe, but it also requires enormous sacrifices,” Michele Della Valle, La Fiorita’s general secretary, told ESPN.
“In San Marino football is an amateur sport and the majority of the squad and staff have jobs. It’s tough especially in the summer to balance football, jobs and family. When we got through the first round, we had to see who could get time off to play in the next round and not everybody could.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the next round was a step too far as the depleted underdogs were beaten 6-1 and 4-0 by Istanbul Basaksehir, but Nicola Greco’s consolation goal in Turkey was met with jubilant celebrations and a mood of optimism for the future.
“The level of our domestic league has improved, so all the Sammarinese sides are doing better in Europe,” Della Valle said. “We’re at a point that getting past the first round should be the least we look for.”
Andorra might have more than double the population of San Marino (a whopping 80,000) and be 45 places above them in the FIFA Ranking (164th), but clubs from the principality sat between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains are also traditional whipping boys in Europe. But Inter Club d’Escaldes have shown in recent years that they are not to be underestimated.
They beat Scotland’s Hibernian in the home leg of a Conference League qualifier last season, and built on that success by thrashing Bosnia’s Velez Mostar 5-1 last month — the biggest win ever for an Andorran side in Europe. In the next round they almost defied all logic to fight back from 4-0 down to lose 4-3 to AEK Athens before succumbing 4-0 at home.
For some outsiders, the dream is still alive. Welsh Premier League champions The New Saints stand on the brink of becoming the first Welsh side to reach the group stage of a major European competition. TNS, who play in Oswestry just over the border from England, made headlines earlier in the year when they were incorrectly awarded a Guinness World Record for what was initially regarded as a 27-match winning streak. However, it emerged that one of those victories had come via a penalty shootout, which technically counts as a draw, and the record was rescinded.
Starting off in the Champions League with a win over Decic of Montenegro, defeats at the hands of Ferencvaros and Moldovans Petrocub left TNS to take on FK Panevezys in a battle of two sides looking to face triple elimination from all three competitions in the same qualifying season. A resounding 3-0 win in Lithuania leaves TNS in a commanding position to qualify for the Conference League proper.
Arguably the biggest fairy tale in Europe so far this season has been that of Noah FC. The club from Armenia, formed in 2017, are the only team to enter the Conference League in the first qualifying round and still remain in the competition. They signed 16 players in the summer, but the players in the overhauled squad seem to have immediately clicked.
Drama has followed Noah FC throughout the campaign. After a solid win over North Macedonia’s KF Shkendija, they turned on the style to fire seven unanswered goals past Maltese side Sliema Wanderers in the first leg of their second-round tie. AEK Athens awaited them in the third round, and facing the Greek side — who reached the Europa League knockout phase as recently as 2018 — looked like a daunting task. However, no one could have reckoned on goalkeeper Ognjen Cancarevic scoring for Noah with a long blast from his own box to net a crucial goal in a 3-1 win at home. Cancarevic then only conceded one goal in the second leg to help secure Noah’s progress.
In their playoff first leg, Noah went ahead against MFK Ruzomberok of Slovakia after just three minutes, only for the match to be stopped by a lengthy power cut that plunged the stadium into darkness. When the floodlights came back on, Noah were re-energised and romped to a 3-0 win, leaving them on the brink of the group stage.
If they can hang on to their respective 3-0 advantages in Thursday’s second legs, then Noah and TNS will be proudly representing Europe’s minnows against clubs a big as Chelsea, Fiorentina and Real Betis this season.
