The Sweeper
@SweeperPod
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The world football podcast that tells you stories you won’t hear elsewhere. Find us on Apple, Spotify & other platforms. New episode every Wednesday.
Vienna, Austria
Joined February 2021
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🇦🇹 In 2005, Red Bull bought & rebranded Austria Salzburg, prompting angry fans of the latter to found a phoenix club & start out in the 7th tier.
Today, more than 18 years later, the two teams will go head-to-head for the first time since in the second round of the Austrian Cup.
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🇱🇮 HISTORY! VADUZ BECOME THE FIRST LIECHTENSTEIN CLUB TO REACH THE EUROPEAN GROUP STAGES!
The only UEFA member so small it doesn't have its own league completes a fairytale run to the Conference League!
We will have a second-division club in continental competition this season!
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🇫🇴 KÍ Klaksvík have become the first-ever club from the Faroe Islands to obtain a point in a European group phase!
For a team from a small town of 5,024 people to hold Lille, who were the champions of France's Ligue 1 as recently as 2021, to a draw is simply a great achievement!
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🇫🇴 KÍ KLAKSVÍK HAVE DONE IT!
The Faroese club have beaten BK Häcken and won two Champions League qualifying ties in the same season for the first time ever.
They are now the first team from the Faroe Islands in history to qualify for the group stages of a European competition!
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🇸🇲 AN INCREDIBLE HISTORY-MAKING MOMENT!
Minnows San Marino, who are currently on the longest international winless run of all time (136 games), have scored a goal in three consecutive matches for the first time in their history!
⚽️ 1 goal v. 🇩🇰
⚽️ 1 goal v. 🇰🇿
⚽️ 1 goal v. 🇫🇮
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📉 148 clubs have qualified for the Champions League group phase since 1992/93. But 16 of them no longer play in the top division domestically.
Who are these fallen giants? What mark did they make in the competition? And what happened to them?
THREAD 🧵
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🇬🇱 After 2 years of pandemic-enforced cancellations, the Greenlandic Football Championship - the shortest season in world football - returns this week.
How does it work? Where? And who takes part? We take a look with the help of some people with first-hand experience.
THREAD 🧵
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🇫🇴 WOW! The Champions League dream lives on for KÍ Klaksvík as they battle back to beat Molde in the third qualifying round first leg.
The win over the Norwegian champs follows the elimination of the Hungarian & Swedish title-winners. A fairytale summer for the Faroese side!
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🇫🇴 The Faroe Islands have beaten Turkey, who are 1,726 times larger in terms of population (48,865-84,340,000) & 562 times larger in terms of surface area (1,393 km²-783,562 km²).
As a result, the Faroes are unbeaten in 4 games - the longest undefeated streak in their history!
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🇩🇪📉 Arminia Bielefeld were in the Bundesliga only 18 months ago, but have since suffered two relegations in a row and dropped to the third tier.
Now they are in the drop zone again and staring down the barrel of a third consecutive relegation - this time into regional football.
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📺⚽️ Super Leagues in Europe worth watching:
🇩🇰 Danish Superliga ✅
🇬🇷 Greek Super League ✅
🇽🇰 Kosovan Superliga ✅
🇲🇩 Moldovan Super Liga ✅
🇷🇴 Romanian SuperLiga ✅
🇷🇸 Serbian SuperLiga ✅
🇸🇰 Slovakian Super Liga ✅
🇨🇭 Swiss Super League ✅
🇹🇷 Turkish Süper Lig ✅
🇪🇺 European…
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🇹🇷 Turkish third-tier club Bursaspor's stadium is constructed in the shape of a crocodile - a nod to their nickname 'The Green Crocodiles' 🐊
We're hoping they return to the big-time soon & play Dundee in Europe - just so journalists can title their pieces 'Crocodile Dundee' 😆
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🇫🇴 A club from a town of 5024 people - the City of San Marino & Balzan are the only smaller places represented in the second qualifying round of the European competitions - have eliminated the champions of Hungary & Sweden!
A momentous, magical European campaign for KÍ Klaksvík!
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🇫🇴 Cut adrift in the North Atlantic & with 300 days of rain per year, the Faroe Islands might not seem the ideal location for football.
But the Premier League, which restarted this month, is one of Europe's most unique top flights. Here are 10 things you should know.
🧵 THREAD
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🇧🇬 A unique situation in Bulgaria, where the current top two both claim to be the successors of a previously existing club - in this case CSKA-Sofia, which went bankrupt in 2016.
If either club won the title, they would claim it to be the 32nd won by the original CSKA.
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🇲🇩 Historic night for Moldova - one of Europe's worst teams with a FIFA rank of 171 - as they come from two down to BEAT 23rd-ranked Poland, 148 places above them in the rankings!!!
It is the first time they have come from two goals down to win a competitive game this century!!!
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🇵🇱 The recent rise of Polish club Raków Częstochowa has been meteoric:
2017: Promotion to 2nd tier
2019: Promotion to top flight
2021: Polish cup & Ekstraklasa runners-up
2022: Polish cup & Ekstraklasa runners-up
2023: Seven points clear in the hunt for a 1st Ekstraklasa title
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🇨🇿 Not only are FC Zlin rock-bottom of the Czech top flight, but they have also lost by a scoreline that we can’t ever remember seeing in football.
Imagine scoring five goals and still getting absolutely thrashed!
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🇫🇷🏆 4th-tier team ASM Belfort will play a Coupe de France 7th-round tie against AS Vénus from Tahiti today.
Elsewhere, Hienghène of New Caledonia will travel to the mainland to face another 4th-tier side, Saint-Quentin.
Both ties involve 32,000km round-trips for the away team!
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🇲🇸 Montserrat, the smallest FIFA nation in the world by population (4,433), have now won three of their six CONCACAF Nations League games.
Coached by Lee Bowyer, the island is so small that men between the ages of 19 and 39 have a 1 in 52 chance of playing for the national team.
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📉 Longest ongoing winless runs by UEFA nations:
🇸🇲 San Marino (133 matches)
🇱🇮 Liechtenstein (32)
🇦🇩 Andorra (11)
🇫🇴 Faroe Islands (10)
🇧🇬 Bulgaria (8)
🇨🇾 Cyprus (8)
🇬🇮 Gibraltar (7)
🇪🇪 Estonia (7)
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🇩🇰 An amazing achievement as Copenhagen, who have the second-smallest squad market value in the Champions League group stages (€66.35m), beat Galatasaray & Man Utd to a place in the knockouts.
It is only the second time the Danish club have reached the last 16, after 2010/11.
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🇩🇪🏆 Saarbrücken, who are mid-table in the third tier of German football, continue their sensational DFB-Pokal run by reaching the semi-finals!
They have now knocked out three Bundesliga clubs on their run: Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt & Borussia Mönchengladbach! Amazing!
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🇫🇷🏆 Fifth-tier French team FC Thionville will make one of the longest-possible journeys in domestic football for their Coupe de France tie this month.
They have volunteered to make a 32,630km round-trip across the world to face New Caledonian representative Hienghène Sport.
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🇫🇷 It’s never nice to lose. Except for today in Ligue 1 ⬇️
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🇫🇴 STUNNING! Faroese leaders KÍ Klaksvík, who are on track to become the world's first top-tier men's team to complete a perfect season since Sunrise Flacq Utd of Mauritius in 1996 (16/16 wins), have upset Ferencváros to win a two-legged Champions League tie for the first time!
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🇩🇪🏆 A cupset of stratospheric proportion in the DFB-Pokal as Saarbrücken, who are 15th in the German third tier, knock out 20-time title-holders Bayern Munich thanks to stoppage time goals at the end of both halves.
Surely one of the biggest upsets in the competition’s history!
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🇬🇱 Today marks the start of the 53rd Greenlandic Football Championship - the shortest season in world football at one week long.
Six teams will travel by air or sea to Qaqortoq in the far south to fight for the title of best football team on one of the world's largest islands.
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🇽🇰 Ballkani have achieved another big result on the European stage by beating 24-time Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb.
The Kosovan club based in Therandë, which has only 10,422 inhabitants, had already beaten the champions of Bulgaria, Northern Ireland & Gibraltar this season.
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🇳🇱🏆 A seismic shock in the Netherlands as FOURTH-DIVISION Hercules eliminate 20-time winners Ajax from the KNVB Cup with a 93rd-minute goal, minutes after the record champions had equalised at 2-2.
It must go down as one of the biggest surprises in the competition's history!
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🇸🇲 SAN MARINO, THE WORLD'S LOWEST-RANKED TEAM WHO HAVE NOT WON SINCE 2004 (133 MATCHES AGO), HAVE SCORED A GOAL AGAINST DENMARK, THE WORLD'S 18TH-BEST TEAM!!!
It is their first competitive goal since scoring in a 7-1 defeat to Poland more than two years ago! 🤩
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🎇 Austria Salzburg have welcomed their players back to the pitch for the second half of their crunch clash against Red Bull Salzburg with one hell of a fireworks display! 👏
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🏴 Having only turned professional in 2019 after 152 years as amateurs, Scotland's oldest club Queen's Park are on track for a 3rd promotion in a row & a Premiership spot.
Intriguingly, they also have the 3rd-most Scottish Cups (10), despite last winning the competition in 1893!
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📈 Seven countries have had a first club in the European group stages since the introduction of the Conference League:
🇦🇲 Armenia (Alashkert, Pyunik)
🇪🇪 Estonia (Flora)
🇫🇴 Faroes (KÍ)
🇬🇮 Gibraltar (LRI)
🇽🇰 Kosovo (Ballkani)
🇱🇮 Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
🇱🇹 Lithuania (Žalgiris)
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🇻🇦 The Vatican City's 2024 football league has completed its sixth match day.
13 teams are taking part and the leaders are the Vatican Firefighters.
Bottom of the table are the Swiss Guards with -2 points, having been docked a point twice for not turning up.
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🇫🇴 History is made as KÍ Klaksvík become the first club from the Faroe Islands to win a group-stage match in a European competition!!!
What a remarkable debut group-phase campaign for the minnows, who are from a village of 5,024 people and have a squad market value of €2.81m!!!
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🇫🇴 The Faroese Clásico between HB Tórshavn & KÍ Klaksvík, the record & reigning champs respectively, takes place in the capital tonight.
Fans travelling to the game will likely take the series of tunnels connecting the islands - including the world's first underwater roundabout.
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🇬🇱 If Russia resign from UEFA, no need to reduce the numbers: we propose Greenland joining as the 55th member in their stead.
Membership is only open to countries recognised by the UN as independent states - but 🇫🇴&🇬🇮 were admitted before that rule came into force.
#Greenland55
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🇦🇿 Qarabağ have finally & dramatically reached the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League.
It's an historic night for Azerbaijan, which has never previously had a representative progress this far in a European competition.
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🇫🇴📊 KÍ Klaksvík in numbers:
2⃣ Domestic champions eliminated from UCL
2⃣.7⃣7⃣ Squad market value in €m
6⃣ UCL qualifying goals for Árni Frederiksberg
1⃣6⃣ League wins in a row
1⃣6⃣ Games unbeaten in all comps
2⃣2⃣ Faroese players in the squad
5⃣0⃣2⃣4⃣ Village population
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📈 Longest ongoing unbeaten runs in all domestic comps in Europe's top 10 countries:
🏴 Celtic (23 games)
🇵🇹 Porto (20)
🇪🇸 Barcelona (18)
🇳🇱 Feyenoord (17)
🇦🇹 Sturm Graz (16)
🏴 Rangers (16)
🇳🇱 Ajax (12)
🇧🇪 Club Bruges (7)
🏴 Man Utd (7)
🇫🇷 Monaco/Nice (7)
🇩🇪 Dortmund/Union (7)
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The UEFA Conference League is simply the best thing in football 🤩
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🇵🇹 Located 1,900km west of Portugal's capital Lisbon, Ilha das Flores in the Azores is - to the best of our knowledge - home to the westernmost stadium in a UEFA country.
The Estádio Municipal de Lajes das Flores is a 2,000-capacity ground on the southern tip of the island.
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🇷🇸 Belgrade-based Voždovac are the only top-flight club in Europe whose stadium is built on a shopping mall!
Stadion Shopping Center, with its 5,200 capacity, is one of just a handful of rooftop stadiums in the world.
You can actually buy tickets at the mall's information desk!
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👪 Clubs from outside Europe's top five leagues with the highest average attendance this century:
1⃣ Celtic 🏴 (51,802) 📸
2⃣ Ajax 🇳🇱 (48,175) 📸
3⃣ Rangers 🏴 (44,933) 📸
4⃣ Feyenoord 🇳🇱 (43,222)
5⃣ Benfica 🇵🇹 (40,287) 📸
Source:
@ThePopFoot
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🇫🇴📈 KÍ Klaksvík's Champions League qualifying run this summer has been astonishing, but they are chasing a perfect season domestically too.
No men's team in European football has won every single game of a top-tier season since Dresdner SC of Germany in 1942/43 - 80 years ago!
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🇬🇱 It has been confirmed that Greenland's week-long men's national football championship will be held in Qeqertarsuaq between August 12 and 18, 2024. Qeqertarsuaq is on Disko Island off the west coast of Greenland and this pitch is definitely on The Sweeper's bucket list!
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🇸🇲 San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini has retired from international football.
During his 65 caps he managed a feat that may never be repeated. Playing against Sweden, Simoncini and his twin brother, Davide, both scored own goals, becoming the first twins ever to score own…
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🇰🇿 Kazakhstan achieved one of the best results in their history by coming from behind to beat Denmark over the international break.
But the country remains a total unknown to European football fans. Here are 10 things you should know about UEFA's easterly outpost.
THREAD 🧵
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🇵🇱 Raków from the southern city of Częstochowa were playing in the Polish third division in 2017.
In addition to winning one league title & two cups since then, they are now only one round away from becoming the first Polish team in the Champions League group stage since 2016.
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🇦🇬🔝 Unai Emery may have guided his team to yet another Premier League win & third place in the table, but they are not the highest-positioned Aston Villa in world football.
That honour goes to the eponymous club in Antigua & Barbuda, who top the table in the Caribbean nation.
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🇸🇲⚽️ In the EURO 2024 qualifying campaign, San Marino have now scored three goals.
That is as many goals as:
🇦🇩 Andorra
🇨🇾 Cyprus
…and more goals than:
🇪🇪 Estonia
🇫🇴 Faroe Islands
🇬🇮 Gibraltar
🇱🇮 Liechtenstein
🇲🇹 Malta
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🇩🇪🏆 Saarbrücken, who are mid-table in the third tier, have followed up their victory over Bayern Munich by beating another Bundesliga club, Eintracht Frankfurt!!!
They are the first side below the second tier to reach the German Cup quarter-finals since Rot-Weiss Essen in 2021.
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🇷🇸 Red Star Belgrade have set the European record for the longest home league unbeaten run ever - 122 games dating back to April 2018.
The Serbian champions have broken the record previously held by Real Madrid, who went 121 home league games unbeaten between 1957 and 1965.
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📉 Domestic giants across the continent are struggling this season:
🇫🇷 Lyon: 7-time champions without a win in 9 matches
🇱🇺 Fola Esch: 2021 title winners with 3 points all season
🇳🇱 Ajax: Record champions winless since opening day
🇨🇭 Basel: 20-time champions bottom by 4 points
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📈 What an incredible situation at AFCON: Cape Verde & Equatorial Guinea, the two smallest countries by population at the tournament (0.6m & 1.7m respectively), win their groups without losing & beat some of the continent’s traditional giants on the way! 🇨🇻🇬🇶
Long live AFCON! 🤩
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📈 Clubs with the fewest league defeats in 2021:
🇵🇹 Porto (0)
🇦🇩 Inter Club d'Escaldes (1)
🇨🇿 Slavia Prague (1)
🇪🇪 Flora Tallinn (1)
🇫🇴 KÍ (1)
🇬🇮 Lincoln Red Imps (1)
🇰🇿 Tobol Kostonay (1)
🇲🇹 Hibernians (1)
🇲🇩 Sheriff (1)
🇵🇹 Sporting CP (1)
🏴 Rangers (1)
🇷🇸 Red Star (1)
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🇮🇹🆙 It's been some rise for Serie B club FC Südtirol from Italy's northernmost province:
1996: Promotion to 6th tier
1997: Promotion to 5th tier
2000: Promotion to 4th tier
2010: Promotion to 3rd tier
2022: Promotion to 2nd tier
2023: 4th in Serie B & in the promotion mix
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🇪🇺 Clubs with greater claim for a place in the European
#SuperLeague
based on number of times they were European champions:
🇵🇹 Benfica
🏴 Celtic
🇳🇱 Feyenoord
🇳🇱 Ajax
🏴 Notts Forest
🏴 Aston Villa
🇩🇪 Hamburg
🇷🇴 Steaua Bucharest
🇵🇹 Porto
🇳🇱 PSV Eindhoven
🇷🇸 Red Star
🇫🇷 Marseille
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🇧🇦 Zrinjski Mostar become the first club from Bosnia & Herzegovina to win a match in a European group phase!
The debutants found themselves three goals down at home, only to bounce back with four goals & seal a spectacular win against a team that sit 34th in the UEFA ranking!!!
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🏙️ Smallest places by pop. represented in the 2023/24 European group phase:
🇫🇴 Klaksvík (5,024)
🇽🇰 Therandë (10,422)
🇷🇸 Bačka Topola (11,930)
🇩🇰 Farum (20,312)
🇧🇬 Razgrad (29,107)
🇫🇷 Lens (30,413)
🇳🇴 Molde (32,446)
🇮🇸 Kópavogur (39,733)
🇪🇸 Villarreal (51,113)
🇳🇴 Bodø (53,259)
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🇫🇷🏆 Second-tier Rodez's exit from the Coupe de France leaves Annecy as the last non-Ligue 1 club in the competition this season.
Rodez were playing their 22nd away tie on the bounce tonight - an all-time record. They have not played at home in the Coupe de France in 6.5 years!
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🇵🇰 Only 2.5 weeks ago, Pakistan appointed journeyman manager Stephen Constantine, who has coached across the world for the last quarter-century.
Today, he guided the country ranked 197th in the world to their first-ever World Cup qualifying win in 34 attempts. Incredible.
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📈 There are currently only two top-flight clubs across the 55 UEFA nations with a 100% record in the 2023/24 season:
🇳🇱 PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands, P14 W14)
🇸🇲 Virtus (San Marino, P11 W11)
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🇱🇮 Vaduz, the only second-tier club competing in European football this season, have only gone to Turkey and thrashed Konyaspor in their own back yard!!!
They remain on course to become the first Liechtenstein team to qualify for the group stages of a continental competition!
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🇯🇴 It is undoubtedly the greatest hour in Jordanian football history as they beat heavy favourites South Korea to reach their first-ever Asian Cup final.
A victory over Iran or hosts Qatar in the final on Saturday would surely complete one of the tournament's greatest…
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🇬🇪 Mind-blowing scenes in Georgia, where the Locomotive Tbilisi RESERVES, who play in the FOURTH TIER, have reached the cup final by beating top-flight Saburtalo on penalties!
To top it all off, the senior Locomotive side were knocked out by second-tier Shukura in the last 16!
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🇪🇸 It is time for the battle of the enclaves as North Africa-based Ceuta & Melilla prepare to go head-to-head in the Spanish third tier.
It is currently the only competitive match in European football between two clubs that are located - 225km apart - on the African mainland.
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🇦🇹 Ah yes, the unmistakeable sight of Mozart hitting a bull with a violin & a banner underneath that reads: “In Salzburg we play the violin”.
We knew there would be a creative tifo from the Austria Salzburg fans vs. Red Bull Salzburg tonight - but we didn’t quite expect that!
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🇫🇴 With nowhere in the Faroe Islands over 5km from the sea & fierce winds hitting the islands, FIFA introduced a rule that applies only on the archipelago.
When a set-piece is awarded, a team-mate may hold onto the ball so that the wind does not blow it away during the run-up.
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📈 Longest unbeaten runs across Europe's top 10 leagues:
🏴 Celtic (18 games)
🏴 Newcastle (16)
🇧🇪 Union Saint-Gilloise (16)
🇫🇷 Reims (14)
🇦🇹 Salzburg (14)
🇳🇱 Feyenoord (13)
🇩🇪 Bayern (12)
🇩🇪 Leipzig (12)
🏴 Rangers (12)
🇪🇸 Barcelona (11)
🇳🇱 Twente (11)
🇦🇹 Sturm Graz (11)
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🇰🇿 Coming into this EURO qualifier on the back of a four-game losing streak, outsiders Kazakhstan have come from two goals down to shock a Denmark side around 100 places higher in the FIFA ranking (18 vs. 115).
It’s going to be a long (3,812km!) journey home for the Danes!
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🇽🇰 For the first time in history, there will be a club from Kosovo, UEFA’s newest member state, in the group stages of a European competition!!!
Ballkani are the only one of the nine teams that made their continental debut this season to reach the Conference League group stages!
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🇹🇷📉 What a decline it has been for Bursaspor, the club with the incredible crocodile stadium! 🐊🏟️
Süper Lig champions in 2010 & European participants as recently as 2015, they have since endured two relegations & are now on course for another to the fourth tier this season.
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🇨🇿🏆 It's derby day in Prague, where Czechia's most successful clubs & current top two Slavia & Sparta will go head-to-head for a place in the cup semi-finals.
We're in town to soak up the pre-match atmosphere at the fan zone & take in another iconic Central European rivalry! 🔜
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The Basque Country’s first international outing in four years ends with an impressive draw against Uruguay.
The Basques are now unbeaten against FIFA teams since losing to Tunisia in 2011 - a seven-match unbeaten streak.
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🇱🇹 Transinvest have become the Lithuanian cup winners, despite playing their football in the second tier and having only been formed last year!
That means that they will be involved in European competition next summer & will enter the UEFA Conference League qualifying rounds.
🇱🇹📈 What a crazy rise it has been for Lithuanian club Transinvest, who could seal a European berth from the second tier this afternoon:
2022: Established
2022: Third-division champions
2023: Top of the second tier & chasing promotion
2023: In the Lithuanian cup final today
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🇨🇭 What a story in Istanbul as Lugano score three times in the final 10 minutes to overturn a two-goal deficit and claim a famous win.
Lugano, the only Super League team from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, had not won in their last 11 European games before tonight.
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🇷🇺 The Russian Football Union is holding a meeting on Friday to discuss resigning from UEFA & joining AFC.
If it does so:
➡️ It will be the first country to resign from UEFA
➡️ The number of members will drop from 55 to 54
➡️ UEFA's collective land mass will decrease by 63.3%
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🇨🇿 Some crazy scenes in Kosovo as Czech side Viktoria Plzeň secure passage through to the next round of the Conference League with a penalty in the 23RD MINUTE OF STOPPAGE TIME!
That must go down as one of the latest goals ever scored in normal time in a UEFA club competition.
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📅 It is a huge day for the Basque Country, who will play their first fixture in four years against Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay in Bilbao tonight.
The Basques are only allowed to play in certain international windows & have not featured since playing Costa Rica in November 2020.
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🇱🇺 Luxembourg keep up their pursuit of a first-ever European Championship qualification berth courtesy of a win over Iceland!
With 10 points already on the board, they have already equalled their best points tally for a qualification campaign (EURO 1996) at the halfway point.
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For years, the smallest nations have taken a beating in almost every international.
Now, the Nations League has given them a new lease of life and the chance to compete.
We analyse the competition's impact from the viewpoint of UEFA's 5 lowest-ranked countries.
THREAD 🧵
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If you think San Marino's 127-game winless run - a world record in FIFA-recognised football - is bad, then spare a thought for Alderney.
The Channel Islanders have not won a game in the annual Muratti Vase for 103 years - but have another shot at redemption today.
THREAD 🧵
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🇪🇸🏆 Well that went well…
🇪🇸🏆 Deportivo Murcia became the first seventh-tier club to ever win a Copa del Rey tie by beating CD Melilla in the preliminary round.
Today they are rewarded with the ultimate test: a home tie against La Liga club Alaves, who are six tiers higher in Spain’s football pyramid!
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🏴 SEISMIC SHOCK IN THE SCOTTISH CUP!
Sixth-tier minnows Darvel, who play in the West of Scotland Premier Division, have eliminated four-time national champions & former Cup Winners' Cup winners Aberdeen.
It will go down as one of the great all-time upsets in the competition!
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🇹🇯 Surely the greatest day in the football history of Tajikistan, the only debutant at the Asian Cup, as they reach the last eight at their first tournament.
The Tajik team, who are ranked 42 places below last 16 opponents UAE, will now face Iraq or Jordan in the quarter-finals.
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🇲🇳🚴♂️🇦🇹 Mongolian footballer Ochiroo Batbold is cycling from Ulaanbaatar to Manchester to see his beloved Manchester United play.
After 9 months on the road & 12,500km covered, he has stopped off in Vienna and accompanied us to Rapid Vienna's cup tie against St. Pölten tonight.
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🇩🇪 German club Hoffenheim rose from the eighth tier to the Bundesliga in the 17 years from 1991 to 2008.
To the best of our knowledge, no other current top-flight European team was so far down its respective country's footballing pyramid at the start of that timeframe.
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𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘂𝗺 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 🇪🇸
Nuevo Estadio Silvestre Carrillo
Nestled between hills in the Canary Island of La Palma, the 6,000-capacity stadium is home to 5th-tier side CD Mensajero.
Among the westernmost grounds in Europe, it is high up on our bucket list for 2023.
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🇧🇦 Zrinjski Mostar have become the first Bosnian club in history to reach the group stages of a European competition!
There are now only seven nations without a representative in a continental group phase: Andorra, Iceland, Malta, Montenegro, Northern Ireland, San Marino, Wales.
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🇵🇹✈️ Portuguese champions Benfica faced a 1,565km trip to the Azorean island of Terceira to play SC Lusitânia in the cup this weekend.
Based even further west than the main island of São Miguel, isolated Lusitânia are one of the westernmost football clubs in Europe at any level.
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🇨🇻 A huge surprise at the Africa Cup of Nations as Cape Verde, the smallest nation at the finals, pop up with a last-gasp goal to beat four-time continental champions Ghana!!!
The Blue Sharks now top their group after Mozambique held Egypt to an unlikely draw in the other game.
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🇫🇷🏆 AS Pirae are making a 31,690km round-trip from Tahiti in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to the French mainland to take on 6th-tier Saint-Meziery in the Coupe de France on Saturday.
Intrigued by the tie, we've decided to make the far shorter journey from Vienna to watch it!
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🇮🇸 Breiðablik have become the first Icelandic club in history to reach the group stages of a major European competition!
Iceland is the ninth new country to gain a first-ever representative in a European group phase since the introduction of the Conference League in 2021/22.
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🇬🇮🏆 SEISMIC SHOCK IN GIBRALTAR!
Bruno's Magpies, a club founded only a decade ago by friends who drank at Bruno's Bar & Restaurant, have claimed the first-ever major trophy in their young history at the expense of the all-conquering Lincoln Red Imps!
What a great achievement!
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🏆 Last lower-league club to win the primary domestic cup in Europe's top 10 countries:
🇧🇪 Mechelen (2019)
🏴 Hibernian (2016)
🇫🇷 Guingamp (2009)
🇩🇪 Hannover 96 (1992)
🇹🇷 Ankaragücü (1981)
🏴 West Ham (1980)
🇮🇹 Napoli (1962)
🇳🇱 LONGA (1926)
🇪🇸 Never
🇵🇹 Never
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🇽🇰 Having become the first club from Kosovo to reach the European group stages last season, Ballkani have another result to treasure.
They have achieved their first UCL win by upsetting Ludogorets, the club with the longest ongoing title-winning streak in Europe (12 seasons).
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🏆 The 96 European group stage participants in the 2022/23 season are spread across 36 countries:
8 🇩🇪
7 🏴🇮🇹 🇪🇸
6 🇫🇷
4 🇧🇪🇳🇱🇵🇹🇹🇷
3 🇦🇹🇨🇾🇨🇿🇩🇰🏴🇺🇦
2 🇮🇱🇳🇴🇷🇴🇷🇸🇸🇪🇨🇭
1 🇦🇲🇦🇿🇧🇬🇭🇷🇫🇮 🇬🇷🇭🇺🇮🇪🇽🇰🇱🇻🇱🇮🇱🇹🇲🇩🇵🇱🇸🇰
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🇯🇵 Absolutely incredible scenes in Thailand as SECOND-DIVISION Japanese club Ventforet Kofu WIN their Asian Champions League group!
The Kofu outfit are the first club to reach the AFC Champions League knockouts in their debut season while not being in the top tier domestically.
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