The Meinau dreams of igniting again. Six years after his elimination in play-offs from the Europa League 2019-2020 against Eintracht Frankfurt, after having crossed two towers (against Maccabi Haifa and Lokomotiv Plovdiv), RC Strasbourg between this time in dams in the Conference League. The young team led by Liam Rosenior had a great season in Ligue 1 to finish in 7th place in the ranking, even if Djordje Petrovic, Andrey Santos and Habib Diarra have left the workforce since.
In the three European cups, clubs without points in the UEFA ranking resume the minimum coefficient of their championship. The Alsatians will take advantage of the 5th place in France to be one of the 24 series heads of the drawing of the dams, on August 4, for meetings scheduled for Thursdays August 21 and 28. Racing will have already started Ligue 1 against Metz and Nantes, on 17 and 24.
Strasbourg really avoids heavy and in particular the representatives of the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga, who are named Crystal Palace, Rayo Vallecano, Fiorentina and Mainz respectively. They will go into play in play -offs like Racing. As a reminder, Palace was to compete in the Europa League after its FA Cup won against Manchester City but was demoted to a conference due to the presence of OL (Nottingham Forest was sent to the Europa League).
Strasbourg against Maribor or Györ?
The Strasbourgers will avoid the favorites of the 3rd qualifying round of the conference which has just been drawn. We will thus find Alkmaar, the rapid of Vienna, Legia Warsaw, Sparta Prague, Istanbul Basaksehir, Partizan Belgrade, the Sheriff Tiraspol, FC Lugano, the Maccabi Haïfa, the Shamrock Rovers, Omonia Nicosie, Besiktas and Dundee United if they qualify.
Some teams projected in the second hat should however be avoided for the RCSA during the drawing of the dams: Santa Clara, the 5th of the last Portuguese championship, Charleroi, winner of the Belgian Playoff, the Hajduk Split, 3rd in Croatia, Aek Athens, 4th in Greece, or Maribor and Györ, who leave a very bad memory to two French clubs, and Montpellier.
