Falkirk versus Vaduz, 2009. Source.
Canadian Championship final, second leg: Toronto FC [2 - 1] Montreal Impact.
Winner moves on to the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 in February.
It's the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League, first qualifying round. The league champions from the ten countries with the lowest coefficients pair off. Among them are two clubs familiar to Scottish Challenge Cup cogniscenti: Linfield (of Northern Ireland) and The New Saints (of the Welsh Premier League). Let's follow them:
Linfield [1 - 0] La Fiorita (San Marino)
The New Saints [1 - 2] Europa (Gibraltar)
The 2017-18 Europa League begins on Thursday. Unlike the Champions League, the Europa League 1QR has 100 teams in it -- cup winners, and 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers. Let's watch:
Rangers [1 - 0] Progrès Niederkorn (Luxembourg)
Rangers' European exile is now officially over. Their last opponent was Maribor in August 2011.
St Johnstone [1 - 2] Trakai (Lithuania)
Perth makes it to Europe for the seventh time.
Crusaders [3 - 1] Liepāja (Latvia)
Nõmme Kalju (Estonia) [2 - 1] B36
Bala Town [1 - 2] Vaduz
Bala Town are 2016-17 Welsh Cup winners, but they were knocked out of the Scottish Challenge Cup by Alloa.
FC Vaduz are here as winners of the Liechtenstein Cup, which they have won 19 of the last 20 times. Liechtenstein gave up on having its own league in the 1930s, and now all seven official clubs play in the Swiss system. Sounds a little like the situation in Canada. Vaduz are interesting to me and you because they were just demoted to the Swiss Challenge League, the European league most like the Scottish Championship. The other Liechtensteiner clubs playing in Switzerland are: USV Eschen/Mauren (tier IV), FC Schaan (tier V), FC Triesenberg (tier V), FC Balzers (tier IV), FC Ruggell (tier VI), FC Triesen (tier VI). Thanks to Vaduz's domination of these six other teams, they have been able to pile up a huge record in UEFA competition. They played Livingston in the 2002-03 UEFA Cup, Falkirk in the 2009-10 Europa League, to name just the Scottish teams.
Connah's Quay Nomads [1 - 0] HJK (Finland)
Connah's Quay finished second in the Welsh Premier League and will appear in the 2017-18 Scottish Challenge Cup.
Tre Penne [0 - 1] Rabotnički (Macedonia)
Tre Penne are winners of the 2107 Coppa Titano, San Marino's national football cup. This is their sixth year of European competition. Last year they played The New Saints.
Morton beat Partick Thistle 5 - 2 in a preseason friendly Saturday. Read about it here.
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