It was nice to wake up this morning for AZ. The Alkmaarders are in the group stage of the Conference League, after they settled in three preliminary rounds with FK Tuzla United, Dundee United and Gil Vicente. This afternoon at 2.30 pm the draw will be in Istanbul.
The big question is who will end up in the group with AZ. Based on recent European performances, the team of trainer Pascal Jansen avoids the strongest opponents on paper. AZ is in pot 1 and cannot meet opponents such as Villarreal (leader Spain), Slavia Prague (leader Czech Republic) and West Ham United (closer England).
Possible teams that can be drawn from the draw are Fiorentina, which eliminated FC Twente last night. OGC Nice and Anderlecht would also be possible. Calvin Stengs plays with the French and Wesley Hoedt plays football in Brussels. Both clubs qualified with great difficulty. Nice needed an extension against Maccabi Tel Aviv and the same was true for Anderlecht against Young Boys.
Unknown opponents
Of course, a much less well-known opponent can also be drawn. FC Vaduz from Liechtenstein is such an unknown club or FC Ballkani. The champion of Kosovo makes his debut in Europe this season and lost in the preliminary round of the Champions League (beginning of July!) after extra time against the Lithuanian FK Zalgiris. Then they won in succession against La Fiorita (champion San Marino), KI (champion Faroe Islands) and KF Shkupi (champion North Macedonia).
FC Vaduz plays at the second level in Switzerland in the absence of its own national competition and caused a huge surprise by knocking out Austria’s Rapid Wien.
Jar 1
Villarreal (Spain), Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), AA Gent (Belgium), Istanbul Basaksehir (Turkey), West Ham United (England), Partizan Belgrade (Serbia), FC Basel (Switzerland)
Jar 2
CFR Cluj (Romania), Molde FK (Norway), FCSB (Romania), Fiorentina (Italy), 1. FC Köln (Germany), Hapoel Be’er Sheva (Israel), Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) and Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) .
jar 3
OGC Nice (France), RSC Anderlecht (Belgium), FK Žalgiris (Lithuania), Austria Wien (Austria), Heart of Midlothian (Scotland), Shamrock Rovers (Ireland), Sivasspor (Turkey) and FC Vaduz (Liechtenstein).
Jar 4
Dnipro (Ukraine), Lech Poznań (Poland), 1. FC Slovácko (Czech Republic), Silkeborg (Denmark), Djurgårdens IF (Sweden), Pyunik (Armenia), RFS (Latvia), FC Ballkani (Kosovo).