The Europa Conference League qualifiers continue on Thursday as the first leg of the third round take place – with plenty of British and Irish interest.
Teams at this stage will now be very much targeting a place in the groups with only two more two-legged ties to go.
After the third round, teams enter a play off a la Champions League and Europa League to decide who advances through to the competition proper.
Several teams who wouldn’t normally be competing in Europe have been handed an opportunity and will be desperate to take it.
Attacking Prowess to Aid Aberdeen
Aberdeen were excellent in their dismantling of Swedish outfit BK Hacken in the second qualifying round and will face another Scandinavian test in the form of Icelandic outfit Breidablik.
They thrashed them 5-1 at Pittodrie meaning the tie was virtually over heading into the second – no one of an Aberdeen persuasion would have been overly worried by their 2-0 defeat in the reverse fixture.
Stephen Glass in his first full season as manager is playing a more free-flowing brand of football than his predecessor Derek McInnes who struck a more cautious note.
They scored five v Hacken and began their league campaign in fine fashion, dispatching Dundee United 2-0.
Breidablik will be a tricky test as they’re midway through their season and have scored more goals in the Icelandic top flight than any other team.
It should be entertaining but Aberdeen’s extra experience should just guide them to victory – they can be backed at 9/4 to win with over 2.5 goals in the match.
Hibs to Struggle Against Croatian Firepower
Hibs are another Scottish Premiership team aiming to grab their European opportunity with both hands as they prepare to face Rijeka of Croatia.
Jack Ross’ side were the best of the rest in Scotland last season and comfortably overcame Andorran side Santa Coloma in round two.
However, Rijeka will prove to be very stiff opposition – they are unbeaten in five matches so far this season and have an excellent goalscoring record with ten goals scored in that time.
Two of Hibs’ star players in Josh Doig and Kevin Nisbet have both been linked with moves away and that could be a distraction.
They began their campaign with a comeback 3-2win against Motherwell but Rijeka’s goalscoring prowess should see them to victory – they can be backed at 7/4 to win the first leg.
Shamrock Rovers Handed Great Opportunity
Irish outfit Shamrock Rovers will be keen to try and make the group stages of the Europa Conference League and they face, on paper, a fairly kind draw in the form of Albanian team Teuta Durres.
The Dublin side fell just short in Europa League qualifying against Slovan Liberec but have certainly responded well by winning each of their last three – including a 3-1 win against League of Ireland title rival St Patrick’s Athletic.
Teuta were Albanian champions last season but this summer hasn’t been easy – they were thrashed by Moldovan outfit Sherriff in Europa League qualifying before they required extra time to beat Andorran Inter Club d’Escaldes.
They have lost three of their last four games so Shamrock should win this one – 10/17 is the price for first-leg victory.
*All odds correct at time of writing.