This week in Europe...

The second qualifying rounds in the three European competitions kick off tomorrow and there is a fair amount of British, Irish and Gibraltan interest. A few giants of European football are active, not least Ajax - with the 4 time European Cup/CL winners finding themselves in Europa qualifying after a bad season. Another European Cup winner, Steaua Bucharest, continue their journey towards CL football.

Champions League
Some very tough games for "our" teams:
Lincoln Red Imps vs Qarabag (Tuesday)
Shamrock Rovers vs Sparta Prague (Tuesday)
Ferencvaros vs The New Saints (Tuesday)

There are some tasty looking ties already:
Steaua Bucharest vs Maccabi Tel Aviv (Tuesday)
Lugano vs Fenerbahce (Tuesday)
Dynamo Kiev vs Partizan Belgrade (Tuesday)
PAOK vs Borac Banja Luka (Wednesday)
Ludogorets Razgrad vs Dinamo Minsk (Wednesday)



Europa League
European giants Ajax are the stand-out team here, with British interest in the form of Kilmarnock. Some of the stand-out ties are:
Ajax vs Vojvodina
Wisla Krakow vs Rapid Vienna
Kilmarnock vs Cercle Brugge
Braga vs Maccabi Petah Tikva
Panathinaikos vs Botecc Plovdiv
Molde vs Silkeborg
(all games Thursday)

Conference League
Lots of British interest here, with the round split between CLQ1 losers in one path and a main path. Larne have received a bye to the 3QR.
One of the big stories of this early stage of European football is Bruno's Magpies, and they face a giant in Copenhagen. Ties include:
Bruno's Magpies vs Copenhagen
St Patrick's Athletic vs Veduz
Valur vs St Mirren
Legia Warsaw vs Caernarfon Town
Cliftonville vs Auda
Zurich vs Shelbourne
(all above games on Thursday, but there are some conference league games on Tuesday and Wednesday)


Second legs are next week, with the 3QR legs played over the next 2 weeks. The play-off round follows directly after.