Welsh clubs find out their European fate

The three Welsh clubs taking part in European competition this season have found out their fate after the draw was made earlier this week.

It will be trips over the Irish Sea for The New Saints and Bala Town while Newtown will be making the trip over the North Sea to the Faroe Islands.

Here we will find out about the clubs who all will be travelling to Park Hall to play the away legs next month.

Champions The New Saints have been drawn against NIFL Premiership champions, Linfield F.C. The side from Belfast are managed by Northern Ireland legend David Healy and were probably one of the best unseeded sides in the draw for the first qualifying round for the Champions League. Linfield have also won the NIFL Premiership for a third time in a row.

Linfield have a decent European pedigree and were only denied participation in the 2019-20 UEFA Europa League group stages due to the away goal rule. They narrowly lost out to Qarabag from Azerbaijan. Antony Limbrick’s side will need to watch out for the likes of Jordan Stewart and Jamie Mulgrew, both who possess an eye for goal and are very much an attacking threat.

The first leg will be played at Park Hall on July 5th with the returning leg taking place at Windsor Park a week later. The New Saints will know they’re in for a tough test, however they did earn a memorable European win against Viktora Plzen last season and will hope they can take that sort of form into the games against Linfield. Bodo/Glimt from Norway who had a run to the quarter finals of the inagural UEFA Europe Conference League or KI Klaksvik, champions of the Faroe Islands Premier League await in the second round.

In the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League, Bala have been drawn to Sligo Rovers who are in the League of Ireland. The main obstacle for Bala will be facing a side who are currently in the middle of their season, something Welsh clubs have struggled to contend with previously. The ‘Bit O’Reds’ finished third in the 2021 League of Ireland and currently sit fifth in 2022. Having just appointed a new manager in John Russell, Sligo will be looking to have that new manager bounce in their games with Bala.

Sligo will be looking to their new players such as Jordan Hamilton and Max Mata to make an impact if they are to win. Bala will look to their usual suspects such as Dave Edwards and Chris Venables. Last season Sligo were defeated in the same round to FH of Iceland and both teams will be looking for an improvement this year. Motherwell will await the winners of this one.

For Newtown who finished third in the JD Cymru Premier, it will be a trip to Torshavn to take on Havnar Bolteflag otherwise known as HB Torshavn. Chris Hughes will make the difficult trip over the North Sea, trips to the Faroe Islands have not been exactly kind to Welsh clubs recently however Newtown will be determined to change that. It took a 7 goal performance from Maccabi Haifa to knock out HB Torshavn out of Europe last season and they have a good pedigree in European football having only missed out on Europe once since 1993.

A team mostly comprised of homegrown players, HB themselves have never faced Welsh opposition in Europe before and Newtown will be a tough test for them with new signing Louis Robles hoping he’ll hit the ground running. A tough test against Spartak Trnava awaits the winners however both will know that a win here will be massive for both of them.

So there you have it, the three clubs from Wales know what awaits them, hopefully their European journeys will carry on into August, from there who knows?