UEFA Europa Conference League: Everything to look out for on Matchday 1

The inaugural group stage of this European third-tier competition gets under way on Tuesday and we serve a taste of what lies ahead, with Dafabet guaranteeing offering boosted odds for each of the fixtures on the cards this week.

There will be two matches on Tuesday with the balance of 14 encounters set for Thursday across Europe for the competition featuring 32 teams aiming for the final in Tirana’s National Arena on 25^th May 2022.

What to look out for

Having ended speculation about his future, Harry Kane propelled Tottenham into the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage with two goals in their play-off win against Paços de Ferreira.

The England captain comes into Spurs’ opener at Rennes as the club’s top continental scorer with 40 goals but needs just one more appearance to break Steve Perryman’s record of 64 UEFA club competition games for the club.

Spurs, incidentally, won the first edition of the UEFA Cup (now the UEFA Europa League) in 1971/72 so there might as well be legitimate to have Spurs’ fans hoping they can repeat that feat by winning another new competition 50 years later.

New kids on the block

Alashkert will this season become the first Armenian team to feature in a UEFA group stage: some rise for a club only revived 10 years ago. A 2013 move to the capital Yerevan upped their ante, and they have quickly established themselves with four Premier League titles.

Their campaign kicks off with a meeting with Maccabi Haifa, while the champions of Gibraltar (population: 35,000), Lincoln Red Imps, start out against PAOK.

Opponents would do well to take them seriously, considering how Lincoln beat Celtic at home in a UEFA Champions League qualifier in 2016.

Union hoping to break Berlin’s duck

Among the capital cities of the big five European footballing nations – England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – only one has never won a major UEFA club tournament, but Union Berlin could consign that statistic to history after making it to their first group stage.

Hertha Berlin were regulars in the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League for a time and East German side Berliner Dynamo were European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-finalists in 1971/72.

Union begin away to Slavia Praha, with Maccabi Haifa and Feyenoord lying in wait.      PHOTO/COURTESY

Additional facts and reporting by UEFA