Preview: Conference League journey begins in Bulgaria | OneFootball

Third match, third competition: Frankfurt begin their UEFA Europa Conference League campaign against PFC Levski Sofia. Their opponents already have several games under their belts.

Third win on the bounce?

Eintracht’s third competitive fixture of the season sees them begin in a third different competition. It was a perfect start results-wise in both the DFB Cup and the Bundesliga, with the 7-0 win against Lokomotive Leipzig in the cup followed by a hard-fought 1-0 success at home to Darmstadt 98 in the league. Now it’s onto the European stage as the Eagles kick off their UEFA Europa Conference League campaign.

The anticipation is suitably growing among the players. “Playing in Europe with this club is special,” said Kevin Trapp. “I know we’ve played in Europe regularly over the last few years, but I don’t feel like it’s normal here. There won’t be anyone in the team who says that the Conference League is not good enough. We’ll approach it like that and take the competition very seriously.”

Sofia in full flow

The first objective is to reach the group stage, but standing in their way are PFC Levski Sofia. The first leg of the play-off kicks off at 19:00 CEST (20:00 local time) on Thursday 24 August at the Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia, with the second leg taking place at Deutsche Bank Park on 31 August (20:30 CEST).

The club from the Bulgarian capital have already had to cover a few more kilometres than the Eagles this season, having played nine competitive matches since mid-July. The 2022 Bulgarian Cup winners saw off KF Shkupi from Macedonia and Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva FC in the second and third rounds of qualifying for the Conference league. In the league, Nikolaj Kostow’s men have registered three wins and two defeats, putting them level on points with serial champions Ludogorets Razgrad in sixth place in the efbet League.

Group stage the target

“We want to reach the group stage and be successful there too,” commented board member for sport Markus Krösche ahead of the meeting with Levski. “We’re not familiar with the competition but we’ll approach it just as we did the Champions League last year. Playing in Europe is always special and we’re looking forward to it.”