Sheriff Tiraspol is one of the biggest teams appearing in the first qualifying round of the Europa League. And it is Sheriff that Prishtina, the reigning winner of the Kosovo Cup, will face.
The first leg between Sheriff and Prishtina takes place at the Sheriff Arena in Tiraspol, Moldova, on Thursday at 19:00 p.m. The return leg is on July 17 at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Prishtina.
In the draw, Sheriff was in the first pot, while Prishtina was in the second pot. In fact, it was the last in the second pot. Based on this, Sheriff is considered the favorite to advance to the second qualifying round of the Europa League.
The Europa League is the second tier of continental club football competitions.
Prishtina already has experience in this competition. In the 2017/18 edition, in its debut, it was stopped in the first qualifying round by Norrköping of Sweden. A season later, in the preliminary round, it passed Europa of Gibraltar, while it was eliminated by Fola Esch of Luxembourg in the first qualifying round. In the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 editions, the Prishtina team was stopped in the preliminary round. In the 2020/2021 edition, it even lost with an official result because it had players with coronavirus.
Finally, in European competitions, Prishtina appeared in the 2021/2022 edition. It started in the Champions League where it passed the preliminary round. In the first qualifying round, it was eliminated by Hungarian Ferencvaros. Then it continued in the Conference League. It passed the second qualifying round, and was eliminated in the third qualifying round by Norwegian Bodo/Glimt.
Prishtina returns to European competitions after four years, aiming to take a step forward. So far, they have played 17 European matches.
Before starting the campaign in Europe, Prishtina has engaged several players, such as: Gjelbrim Taipi, Mario Ilievski, Gjorgje Shaletić, Akileu Ndreca, Valmir Veliu, Hamdi Namani, Blend Baftiu, Drin Bajraktari, Dren Zeqiri. But it has also parted ways with several very important players.
Sheriff is the runner-up and current winner of the Moldovan Cup. In the 2023/2024 season, it appeared in the group stage of the Europa League. It had passed the group stage in the Europa League in the 2022/2023 season, while in the 2021/2022 season it played in the group stage of the Champions League.
They were in a group with Real Madrid, Inter and Shakhtar Donetsk. They even won 2:1 against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on September 28, 2021.
Sheriff has already played three matches in the new edition of the Moldovan championship. He has scored three victories.
"The three matches we have played are good preparation for the European Cup. The team is in good shape, physically and mentally. European matches have other emotions. We will give everything and hope that everything will be okay. The team from Kosovo has quality and wants to play football. If allowed to play, it can do so. There are technical players. Based on this, we will build our game. It is a very serious and disciplined team. We are prepared for this", said Sheriff coach Viktor Mihaylov.
He emphasized that Sheriff's goal is to qualify for the league stage.