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Venue: Windsor Park, Belfast Date: Thursday August 25 To start up: 7:45 p.m. GMT
Cover: Watch on BBC Two Northern Ireland & iPlayer, live text commentary, match report and reaction on BBC Sport website

Linfield are just 90 minutes from history and land a life-changing bargain – yet, according to captain Jamie Mulgrew, they have nothing to fear.

Linfield put in a superb performance to take a two-goal first-leg lead against Rigas Futbola Skola, but the Latvians managed two late efforts to bring the Irish League champions back to Belfast.

“It’s probably the biggest game in club history,” Mulgrew said ahead of Thursday’s game, which will be shown live on BBC Two NI and BBC iPlayer.

“It is what it is, I don’t think we are nervous or anxious. It is something that we have to look forward to and face the challenge head on.

“We, certainly me, might not have an opportunity like this again, so what to be afraid of?”

Despite being the biggest game for any club in the Irish Premiership, Mulgrew says his only target is Linfield and he “don’t really care about the rest of the league”.

“I care about Linfield, I care about what’s going on here,” he said.

“The league won’t care about Linfield. I don’t mean that in a cheeky way – it’s a fact and that’s how it is.

“It would be fantastic for everyone linked to the football club, it would be an incredible achievement for all of us and we can’t wait to achieve it.

“I just hope we can put in a performance that will guarantee us going through.”

It would be amazing

Mulgrew, who came on as a second-half substitute in Riga, said Linfield’s performance in the first 85 minutes of the first leg was “perfect” but the hosts’ two late goals provided further motivation.

Stephen Fallon and Joel Cooper were on target for the Blues before RFS replied through Kevin Friesenbichler and Ziga Lipuscek, who equalized in the 96th minute.

“What should add fuel to the fire are the two goals we conceded last week and their delay,” said the skipper.

“It was a little sickening and a little dampening of the performance because for 85 minutes, maybe even more, the boys were perfect and going for it.

“The wake-up call for us is obviously the two goals and that’s maybe the little tighter for us, that concentration levels have to be perfect the whole game.”

With the £2.45m prize money that would come with qualifying for the group stages, Mulgrew said qualification would go a long way to securing the Irish League’s most successful club a bright future.

“At my age, at 36, to get to the Conference group stage playing for Linfield – I’ve been here so long, I came to see Linfield as a kid – so that would be amazing.

“That would be something for the club to hopefully move forward. I’m sure they have a four or five year plan to take the club forward. With the financial gains that come with the group stage of the Conference, I hope they would be able to achieve this.

“Hopefully we can play a part in that to move the club forward and you can only do that with the finances that come with the Conference group stages.”

European nights in Windsor Park are ‘different’

When thoughts turn to big European nights at Windsor Park, it’s hard to look past Shayne Lavery’s inspired win over big hitters Qarabag in 2019.

Those famous scenes were echoed when Kirk Millar scored a superb goal against Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League qualifiers this summer, and although Linfield lost the second leg against the Norwegians, Mulgrew says the home support will be vital for the Blues to progress.

“For us to have the second leg at home was a big plus for us, especially as we are still in the game,” he added.

“That’s all you want in European football and it’s up to us to take advantage of it.

“It’s always been the aim and the goal, to still have something to fight for. We have a very good record at home and it’s up to us to maintain that record at home.

“We had some great nights at Windsor Park with Linfield. European nights are different here and if it’s busy they can create a really good hostile atmosphere.

“Hopefully that’s what happens and we can give them something to shout about.”

Aug. 25, 2022 – Hajduk dropped out of the UEFA Europa Conference League 2-6 on aggregate against Villarreal. The Split club lost 0-2 to Poljud on Thursday night.

Hajduk and Villarreal met in the second leg of the Conference League play-offs at a sold-out Poljud Stadium on Thursday. In the first match, Villarreal won 4-2 at Valencia, meaning Hajduk needed to score three goals to stand a chance.

Villarreal are one of the best teams in Europe and were definitely the favorites to go forward. The Spanish club were Champions League semi-finalists last year and Europa League champions the season before, knocking out Dinamo Zagreb en route to the title.

Hajduk had faced Spanish clubs five times so far in European competitions but failed to top them.

“It will be a tough test because Villarreal like to control the game and have possession of the ball. We have to be patient and focused for the 90 minutes and pay attention to the small details,” Hajduk coach Valdas Dambrauskas said before the match.

“In this beautiful stadium, we expect a good atmosphere in which we will try to manage the match,” said Villarreal coach Unai Emery.

Compositions

HAJDUK: Kalinić – Mikanović, Awaziem, Elez, Melnjak – Grgić, Fossati – Sahiti, Krovinović, Biuk – Livaja

VILLARREAL: Reina – Kiko, Mandi, Cuenca, Pedraza – Chukwueze, Parejo, Coquelin, Baena – Lo Celso, Nicolas

Match report

Villarreal had their first attack in the 2nd minute, which came out for a goal kick. Melnjak played a hospital ball to a Villarreal player at the top of the box. Kalinic luckily saved the shot, but Hajduk fouled on the next game. A Villarreal free-kick found Baena’s header, which went over the post.

The first five minutes were fragile for Hajduk, who played nervously.

A quick counter from Awaziem found Sahiti on the right and came out for Hajduk’s first corner. The ball was played through the Villarreal defense and returned by Sahiti, who found Livaja’s header. Marko just missed the post.

Another attack for Hajduk came in the 10th minute and Fossati managed to get a shot which was blocked.

Another shaky instance in Hajduk’s defense came a minute later and was thankfully cleared by Melnjak.

Another brilliant attack from Hajduk in the 14th minute saw Livaja get a shot which was deflected for a corner. Krovinovic found Livaja, whose one-touch shot went over the goal.

Sahiti dribbled through the Villarreal defense on the next game and shot at the keeper. Livaja tried to lob the keeper from the halfway line in the 16th minute. And he hit another rocket that went just wide of the far post on the next play.

Mikanovic received a yellow card in the 19th minute.

Villarreal attempted a quick counter in the 22nd minute but fired straight at Kalinic. Hajduk replied and Biuk got a shot which was deflected towards Reina.

Hajduk was hungry and had another corner in the 25th minute, followed by another afterwards.

Villarreal started to possess the ball and tried to move into the box. Nicolas’ sophisticated footwork couldn’t outrun Hajduk’s defense.

A free kick from Hajduk in the 30th minute was played short to Biuk on the left. The young midfielder cut in the middle and went down for a foul, but the referee said to continue. Hajduk’s next attack was ruled offside.

A dangerous free kick for Villarreal in the 34th minute was taken past the corner spot. Luckily, the ball went straight to Kalinic.

But minutes later, Pedraza had his chance, playing around Hajduk’s defense with no one in the block. He fired wide into Kalinic’s goal for 0:1 Villarreal. Hajduk’s hope had dwindled.

A free kick from Livaja in the 41st minute was fired from around 30 yards out and went just wide of the post. The first half ended 0:1 for Villarreal.

Villarreal made a substitution to start the second half – Capoue continued for Coquelin. Hajduk made no changes.

A dangerous chance for Villarreal came in the 47th minute, which was blocked by the Hajduk defence. A remarkable save from Kalinic in the 51st minute prevented Villarreal from going ahead by two goals.

Another Villarreal attack in the next minute came out for a corner. Hajduk managed to clear all dangerous plays and tried to calmly move the ball into Villarreal’s half but couldn’t get a shot.

On the next attack, Chukwueze’s shot slipped past Kalinic and into the goal for 0-2 Villarreal. Hajduk would now need 4 goals to bring the game into overtime.

Villarreal made substitutions in the 58th minute – Moreno replaced Jackson and Morales for Lo Celso.

Hajduk made his first substitutions in the 59th minute – Lovrencsics replaced Mikanovic and Mlakar for Sahiti.

Fossati was replaced by Vukovic in the 65th minute.

Mlakar had a great chance to score a minute later but narrowly missed the far post.

Krovinovic was fouled in the corner of the penalty area in the 71st minute. The same player took the free kick, which went out for a goal kick.

Hajduk netted a free kick and a corner in the 75th minute with no possibility of a goal.

Pau Torres replaced Pedraza and Foyth for Kiko in the 79th minute. Colina replaced Melnjak and Simic for Elez in the same minute.

There were no dangerous chances for either team in the final 10 minutes. The referee added 3 minutes of stoppage time, during which no one scored.

Hajduk therefore dropped out of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Post-match comments

Villarreal coach Unai Emery

“We played against a team that is good today but also has a rich past. The atmosphere created by the fans was special and we enjoyed it. I’m sorry that a team like Hajduk is excluded from the European competition. With that kind of atmosphere and fans, it deserves to be in the European competition. I must repeat that in the first game we made several mistakes, and now we managed to improve some things that we had made in the first game at a lower level. This is Europe, we have to be focused and happy with this kind of game.”

Valdas Dambrauskas, Hajduk coach

“I can’t fault the players. We were ready and better than in the first game. The class difference between us and Villarreal is too big, especially in two games. We look to Osijek, who for us is like the final, won’t be easy, but we have to concentrate. We showed a level that we can be proud of, but we have to improve,” said Dambrauskas.

“A big thank you to the fans for their support during and after the game. It’s a big responsibility. I’m not afraid to say it, and I know it sounds like a cliché, but we really have the best supporters in this game. “Europe. We really do. Someone compares us to Napoli and Marseille, but we’re not even the first in Croatia, we don’t play in the European League or the Conference League, and we have such support. The players and we are very proud to have this kind of support.”

To follow sports news in Croatia, follow the dedicated page of TCN.

Gil Vicente suffered a 4-0 loss to AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of the Europa Conference League play-offs. Gilistas led 1-0 with 15 minutes to go before a late capitulation all but ended their chances in the draw.

Dani de Wit’s firm header gave AZ a deserved half-time lead with Mayckel Lahdo, Vangelis Pavlidis and Mees de Wit completing the rout late.

Ivo Vieira’s side never seemed to score in the Netherlands and have virtually no chance of overturning the deficit at Barcelos next week.

One-way traffic

AZ Alkmaar established their dominance early on, with the Dutch club continually probing in and around Gil Vicente’s box.

Gil Vicente’s rare forays into the final third frequently resulted in failures, with the AZ defenders effortlessly coping with the danger posed by Ali Alipour and Elder Santana.

The breakthrough came in the 24th minute, with Milos Kerkez’s measured cross finding Dani de Wit who got in front of Henrique Gomes and powered his header into the net.

AZ seemed happy to let the Portuguese club have the ball as there was simply no penetration. Danilo Veiga was advancing but his passes were often wide of the target or found teammates who couldn’t control the ball.

The game heated up at half-time, with Kerkez’s late challenge on Kanya Fujimoto seeing the left-back booked alongside Sam Beukema and Henrique Gomes.

Gil Vicente holds on

Gil Vicente continued to feed on leftovers in the second half with Giorgi Aburjania’s free kick going over the bar.

Myron van Brederode proved to be a real handful on the left wing, dominating Viega and forcing Aburjania into a booking for stopping the 19-year-old winger from clearing.

AZ started to put the pressure on, with Tijjani Reijnders playing a nice 1-2 with Dani de Wit which forced a smart save from Andrew.

Ivo Vieira tried to turn things around in the 61st minute with Matheus Bueno and Kevin Villodres introduced for Aburjania and Santana.

Gil Vicente seemed content to have men behind the ball and preserve the one-goal disadvantage, a dangerous tactic with AZ smelling blood in the water and the crowd starting to ignite.

Pascal Jansen made his first two substitutions in the 72nd minute when Milos Kerkez and Myron van Brederode made way for Mees de Wit and Mayckel Lahdo.

Vangelis Pavlidis saw a shot saved from close range after a shocking turnover from Bueno, but the Dutch didn’t have to wait long for another chance to double their advantage.

Late attack

The goal came in the 78th minute, Hakon Evjen’s dangerous cross clearing the post from Lucas Cunha who had replaced Tomás Araújo less than 60 seconds earlier, the ball falling directly to Lahdo who made no mistakes from close range .

Andrew came off his line to take the ball from Pavlidis a yard inside his penalty area, but the Greek striker would not be denied. Viega’s poor pass was picked up by Reijnders, he fed Pavlidis who burst into the box and got inside two defenders before shooting past the Brazilian keeper.

If 3-0 wasn’t enough, Gil Vicente’s capitulation was complete in the 89th minute when the draw was put out of reach. A 1-2 routine between Reijnders and Yukinari Sugawara saw Sugawara’s cross find an unmarked Mees de Wit at the far post.

Disappointment for Ivo Vieira

Ivo Vieira gave three players their first starts of the season; Tomás Araújo, Giorgi Aburjania and Elder Santana. Araújo and Santana were making their first appearances, Aburjania previously playing 22 minutes on the bench in the return leg against Riga.

The lack of cohesion was evident throughout but regardless, Vieira and his team would have been content to come back to Barcelos trailing 1-0 in the draw. It will be difficult to convince his team that they can overturn the 4-0 deficit at Barcelos.

In the end, AZ’s 4-0 victory is not so surprising. The Dutch club finished last season with a 6-1 win over Vitesse and crushed Dundee United 7-0 in their previous game at Alkmaar.

By Matthew Marshall

Villarreal achieved several firsts tonight as they cruised to a 4-2 win over Hadjuk Split.

The Estadio de la Ceramica is currently undergoing renovations and as a result Villarreal play Valencia at Levante’s Ciutat de Valencia stadium until the end of the year.

Things started well in their first-ever Europa Conference League draw, as Jose Luis Morales scored his first two goals for his new club. Stipe Biuk had given Hadjuk the lead within two minutes but Morales’ equalizer and Marko Livaja’s own goal had the Yellow Submarine ahead. El Comandante added another before assisting Gerard Moreno to score his fourth before half-time.

The bueno of @jose1987morales regatea hasta a las cameras 🤣.

¡MENUDO CHICHARRO COMMANDER 💛! #UECL pic.twitter.com/24mxDHZ4YR

— Villarreal CF (@VillarrealCF) August 18, 2022

A late penalty from Marco Fossati closed the gap and means Villarreal will be a little less comfortable than they would have liked for their second leg in Split.

A returning Pepe Reina also made his second debut for the club, 20 years after his first stint. Villarreal were in charge for most of the game but Unai Emery was not happy to concede twice in a sloppy start and a sloppy end.

It was May 2021 and West Ham United had clinched a top-six berth when privately David Moyes admitted qualification for Europe was not enough for him. He had wanted sixth place to send West Ham to the Europa League, not the Conference League.

For much of an inspired run in the second continental competition, it seemed like a route to the Champions League. Even after their bad-tempered exit to Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals, the Europa League beckoned again. A goal clear at half-time on the final day at Brighton, they were heading for sixth place. A second-half collapse dropped them to seventh. A year later, West Ham made their debut in the Conference League.

Their manager’s attitude has changed, perhaps out of necessity. “It’s an absolutely fantastic thing,” Moyes said on Sunday. “We finished seventh in the league last year and you talk, ‘Is Europe any good?’ My God, I don’t know how many teams in the leagues would shake your hand and say, ‘Please give us European football.’

It’s a valid point, and for years West Ham would have been one of those clubs that looked on with envy. The gap between ambition and reality has sometimes been huge. They hadn’t had a great European run in four decades until last year; Moyes’ reinvention of the club that has long been flattered to deceive should make them more regular occurrences. He is a specialist in steering a path to positions between fifth and eighth – in contrast West Ham had failed to finish in the top seven in a row until his reappointment – ​​and a club which hosted 62,443 fans at its first home game of the season has the kind of infrastructure to suggest that their participation in Europe shouldn’t be a one-off.

Moyes is synonymous with consistency and relentlessness, while West Ham have tended to follow good seasons with bad ones. The downside to the Scot’s record is that it still doesn’t include any trophies except for a Second Division title with Preston and a Community Shield which Manchester United were only on the line because Sir Alex Ferguson had won the Premier League.

The Conference League offers the opportunity to remedy this. Certainly, West Ham are starting a play-off against Viborg, who finished seventh in the Danish Superliga last year, supposed to win, and not just on Thursday. They must be among the favorites in the competition, along with Fiorentina and Villarreal, but with the caveat that it can be won by a side starting the season in the Europa League.

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Rice led West Ham to the Europa League semi-finals with a brilliant win in Lyon

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West Ham start with a trio of suspensions, each of which should be cause for embarrassment. Aaron Cresswell’s red card against Frankfurt bore some similarities to his dismissal against Lyon, suggesting he had learned no lessons. Moyes was sent to the stands for throwing the ball at a ball boy. Declan Rice has a two-match ban for accusing the referee of bribery; he may want to check the definition of the word. If there’s a flattering slant to the actions of Moyes and Rice, they showed just how much winning the Europa League means to West Ham.

Now, any victory can be welcome. Their Premier League campaign began with back-to-back defeats. The expectation of a first goal has increased which, as their last four pre-season games have produced just three, indicates that the problems may go beyond simply facing Manchester City and do everything but score as a visit to Nottingham Forest included a missed penalty, a goal-line clearance, an unauthorized strike and a few brushes against the woodwork.

This should provide a chance to give Moyes’ two attacking additions a first start. Gianluca Scamacca made two appearances as a substitute and West Ham’s progress in Europe last year meant Michail Antonio was overworked and his goalscoring dried up. Maxwel Cornet made his Nottingham debut.

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The Hammers saw their run ended by eventual champions Eintracht Frankfurt

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The former Lyon winger scored four Champions League goals against Manchester City and Moyes’ summer deals show he intends to build a squad big enough to compete on multiple fronts and with plenty of European pedigree. One target, Emerson Palmieri, was a Champions League winner with Chelsea in 2021, albeit as an unused substitute in the final, and scored in a knockout victory over Atletico Madrid; Moyes’ new signing, Thilo Kehrer, played in the 2020 final for Paris Saint-Germain.

Each might seem like a sign of ambition, or the sort of signing West Ham used to make back in the days when they bought the rejects of the biggest clubs and signed players from the bottom up. Moyes has largely succeeded in reinventing West Ham, in forging a work ethic, in finding players who share his determination. Former Hammers sides have spoken of a number of ignominious European exits. The latter secured memorable victories against Sevilla and Lyon last season. But if such fond memories are to be created, West Ham must first avoid going back to type, avoid upheaval and ensure that, for only the second time since 1981, they play in Europe after Christmas.