An away game against Kiev would take place in Lublin in Poland because of the war in Ukraine. First, however, Salzburg must overcome the hurdle of Twente Enschede in the third qualifying round. The first leg will take place on Tuesday (8.45 p.m.) in Wals-Siezenheim, the return leg follows on August 13 (7 p.m.) in the Netherlands. In the play-off, Salzburg only had two other possible opponents in the league path, the winner from Slavia Prague against Union Saint-Gilloise was not it, so on paper the draw was not kind to the “Bulls”. If they were to fail against Twente, they would go straight into the group phase of the Europa League.
The play-off was also drawn there on Monday. LASK will face the loser of the Sparta Prague – FCSB Bucharest duel. The two champions from the Czech Republic and Romania will face each other in the third qualifying round for the Champions League. According to LASK coach Thomas Darazs, both opponents “represent a very cool sporting challenge for us.” They are already looking forward to the start of the European Cup season. Last year, Linz won the play-off against Zrinjski Mostar from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The first leg on August 22nd will take place in the Raiffeisen Arena, with the second game following exactly one week later.
Rapid also wants to be involved in this round. To do this, they must first defeat Trabzonspor in the third round this week and next week. The promoted team will face either the Portuguese club SC Braga, which finished fourth in the 2023/24 league, or the Swiss Super League club Servette Geneva, third in last year’s championship round. The first game would be away.
If the Viennese fail to beat Trabzonspor, they would move into the play-offs for the Conference League. There, their opponents would be either St. Gallen, another Swiss club, or Slask Wroclaw from Poland. Here, too, Rapid would have home advantage in the return match. The Hütteldorfers had recently clearly beaten a Polish representative, Wisla Krakow, in the second Europa League qualifying round, with 2:1 and 6:1.
