Sutjeska's potential rivals in the Champions League qualifiers: Possible duels with Borac and Drita, but also a good, well-known opponent

By winning the title, the sixth in history, the Sutjeska football club earned a place in the Champions League qualifiers.

The Montenegrin champion starts from the first round of qualifications, which includes 27 other teams, and as was the case before, Sutjeska will be at a disadvantage with 13 other teams in the draw on June 16th.

And since the season in all leagues is over, all potential rivals in the first round are known. So Milorad Peković's team can play against Banja Luka's Borac, with whom they faced off in the summer of 2020 in the first round of the Europa League qualifiers. At that time, due to restrictions due to the coronavirus, only one match was played, and the Nikšić team lost 1:0 in Banja Luka.

When it comes to teams from the surrounding area, the draw could pair Sutjeska with Drita from Kosovo. Drita played in the group stage of the Conference League in the recently concluded season, where they took 20th place, and reached the playoffs, where they were narrowly defeated by Slovenian Celje both times (3:2, 3:2).

There is also KI Klaksvik from the Faroe Islands, well known to the people of Nikšić. The "Blues" played against this team in the summer of 2022 in the second round of qualifications for the Conference League. The first match at the "DG Arena" ended without a winner (0:0), and then in the second leg in the Faroe Islands, the team, then led by Milija Savović, was defeated 1:0. A season later, Klaksvik became the first club in the history of the Faroe Islands to play in the group stage of a European competition - it was in the Conference League.

In the group of seedings, among Sutjeska's possible rivals, there are also: Shamrock Rovers (Republic of Ireland), Kups (Finland), Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar), Vikingur (Iceland), Kairat (Kazakhstan), Craiova (Romania), Riga (Latvia), Flora (Estonia), Larne (Northern Ireland) and Petrokub (Moldova).

And ahead of the draw, UEFA will, as it does every year, shorten the list of potential rivals.

Sutjeska has played in the Champions League qualifiers five times, and only once has it passed the first round. It was in the summer of 2019, when historic matches were played with Slovan Bratislava. Both duels ended 1:1, and then in the return match in Nikšić there were penalties in which Vladan Giljen excelled. At that time, the team was led by Nikola Peco Rakojević, and in the second round, Sutjeska was eliminated by the Cypriot APOEL. After the matches with APOEL, Sutjeska continued its European adventure that summer in the third round of the Europa League qualifiers, when it was eliminated by Linfield from Northern Ireland. At the same time, it was the best European summer in the history of the Nikšić club.

The first legs of the first round of Champions League qualifying are on July 7th and 8th, with the return legs on July 14th and 15th.