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The opening process in the draw for the UEFA Conference League second qualifying round has taken place at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon – with Cliftonville’s list of potential opponents now whittled down to just seven teams.
The Reds are unseeded in the draw and have been listed as Team 10 in Group 1, where we will be paired with one of FC Copenhagen (Denmark),Go Ahead Eagles (Netherlands), St Mirren (Scotland) and the winners of the first qualifying round ties involving Atletic Club Escaldes (Andorra)/ Dudelange (Luxembourg) and FK Auda (Latvia)/ B36 (Faroe Islands) when UEFA’s Head of Club Competitions Tobias Hedtstuck conducts the full draw this afternoon.
Though a total of 55 Clubs will be involved – plus 25 winners from the Conference League first qualifying round and six teams dropping out of the Europa League – a smaller number of balls will be drawn, with teams 1-5 facing those numbered 6-10 in correspondence with the numbers drawn. If, for example, 1 is matched with 8, then Team 1 will face Team 8 in all nine groups.
Cliftonville Chairman Kieran Harding and Chief Operating Officer David Begley will be in attendance at the House of European Football and fans are advised that cliftonvillefc.net will provide instantaneous news of the draw, including a detailed guide to our opponents, while our increasingly popular Twitter, Facebook and Instagram platforms will ensure you’re kept fully up-to-speed no matter where you are.
First leg ties are currently pencilled in for July 25 with the return games taking place on August 1 and, while all arrangements remain subject to change owing to television, security and UEFA’s favoured single-fixture-per-city policy obligations, supporters are urged against making any travel arrangements whatsoever until both matches have been officially confirmed by the Club – with the potential for such amendment significantly increased by all three of the Sports Direct Premiership’s other European entrants hosting games in the Euro Under-19 Championship during the period in question.
UEFA Conference League Second Qualifying Round
Group 1
Seeded
1. FC Copenhagen (Denmark)
2. Atletic Club Escaldes (Andorra)/ Dudelange (Luxembourg)
3. Go Ahead Eagles (Netherlands)
4. St Mirren (Scotland)
5. FK Auda (Latvia)/ B36 (Faroe Islands)
Unseeded
6. SK Brann (Norway)
7. BK Hacken (Sweden)
8. Bruno’s Magpies (Gibraltar)/ Derry City (Ireland)
9. Valur (Iceland)/ Vllaznia (Albania)
10. Cliftonville