New Saints potential Champions League opponents confirmed for 2023/24 season
OSWESTRY, ENGLAND - 22 APRIL 2023: TNS celebrate winning the 2022/23 JD Cymru Premier after the conference championship fixture between The New Saints FC & Connahs Quay Nomads at Park Hall, Oswestry, England, April 22th, 2023. (Pic By John Smith/FAW)
TNS are already back in pre-season training and with good reason, the Champions League qualifiers are coming up.
Craig Harrison’s side finished their season on May 1, having comfortably beaten Bala Town 6-0 to win the Welsh Cup. It would mean a domestic double for The new Saints who won the league by 22 points, tasting just one league defeat all season.
The men from Oswestry are now back in training however as they begin their preparations for their 2023/24 campaign which starts with a Champions League qualifier.
TNS are unseeded for this draw which is based on the UEFA coefficient rankings. The Oswestry club have been in Europe consecutively for 24 years and despite not reaching the group stage of any UEFA competition, have accumulated a vast number of points.
Who could they play?
Unseeded: Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar), KI (Faroe Islands), Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia), Rakow Czestochowa (Poland), Partizani (Albania), BK Hacken (Sweden), Farul Constanta (Romania), Valmiera (Latvia), Ballkani (Kosovo), Larne (Northern Ireland), Urartu (Armenia), Hamrun Saprtans (Malta), Swift Hesperange (Luxembourg), Struga (Macedonia) and the winner of the preliminary round final (Buducnost Podogorica of Montenegro, Breiðablik of Iceland, Tre Penne of San Marino, and Andorra’s Atlètic Club d’Escaldes)
TNS have met Lincoln Red Imps before, beating them 3-2 on aggregate in 2018. Should Tre Penne secure an unlikely qualification to the first qualifying round, they’ve also beaten them with a 5-1 aggregate scoreline in 2016.
Bala Town played NIFL Premiership side Larne last season, losing 2-0 on aggregate. The men from County Antrim won the league for the first time in their history. Dinamo Tbilisi faced Connah’s Quay a few seasons ago and narrowly beat them.
Rakow Czestochowa and BK Hacken are two teams that TNS would want to avoid, as despite being unseeded, they come from Poland and Sweden, and are first-time league winners, but come from countries with a vast amount of resources for football.
When is the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round draw?
The draw will take place on Tuesday, June 20, and it will be streamed on the UEFA website.
When will the ties take place?
First-leg ties are to take place on either Tuesday, July 11, or Wednesday, July 12, and then the return match will be a week later on Tuesday, July 18, or Wednesday, July 19.
Where are the matches to be played?
Park Hall is one of the few matches that can host European matches, and so up until the third qualifying round, games will be played at their home.
