- The Swiss champions meet Slovan Bratislava or Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League playoffs at the end of August.
- In the meantime, either PSV Eindhoven or Sturm Graz is waiting for Servette if the Geneva team should prevail against Glasgow Rangers in the 3rd qualifying round.
- In the Europa League, FC Lugano also knows its treacherous play-off challenger: it is the Belgians from Union Saint-Gilloise.
- And if Lucerne were still in the running in the Conference League playoffs, Aston Villa would be the adversary there.
- All decisive European Cup games with Swiss participation will take place on 22/23/24 and 29/30/31. held in August.
The path to the group stage of the Champions League leads to either the Slovakian or the Israeli champions for the Young Boys. Both Slovan Bratislava and Maccabi Haifa are beatable opponents for the Bernese.
It will be more difficult for Servette, who, as runners-up in the championship last season, has to get into the group stage via the more complicated league route. Should Geneva prevail against Glasgow Rangers in the 3rd qualifying round, either PSV Eindhoven or Sturm Graz would wait in the playoffs. If Servette loses against Rangers, they are in the group stage of the Europa League without further qualifying rounds.
The first leg will take place on 22./23. August, the second leg a week later. YB initially plays away, Servette would have home rights first.
Lugano: A hard test awaits
A European level lower, FC Lugano meets Belgium’s Union Saint-Gilloise in the play-offs for the group stage of the Europa League. The games will take place on August 24th and 31st. The Ticino will play away first. Incidentally, the club from the immediate vicinity of the metropolis of Brussels failed on its way to the “premier class” in the previous season because of this year’s Servette opponents Glasgow Rangers.
As a result, the Belgians caused quite a stir in the Europa League with their quarter-final advance (out against Bayer Leverkusen with a total score of 2:5). And in the national championship in the regular season they only finished second behind KRC Genk because of the worse goal difference. After the playoffs, the 3rd place looked out – the 12th title in the club’s history would have been the first since 1935 (!). The German Alexander Blessin has been engaged as a coach since this season.
Should Lugano lose the duel with Union Saint-Gilloise, they will definitely take part in the group stage of the Conference League.
Lucerne: After Hibernian would be before Aston Villa
The 2023/24 European Cup season for FC Luzern is still pending. The central Swiss switched to the Conference League level cleared her first hurdle Djurgardens (SWE) recently thanks to an effort. If coach Mario Frick’s team survives the 3rd round qualifying duel with Scottish representative Hibernian Edinburgh, Aston Villa will be waiting on the threshold of the group phase in the playoffs.
The club from the Birmingham district of the same name finished the last Premier League season in 7th place.