August 28, 2024 at 7:00 AM ET
For most football fans, this season's European club competitions will get underway later this week when the draws for the group stages of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League are made.
But while UEFA's flagship event may end nine months from now with the trophy being hoisted and ticker tape flying in front of hundreds of millions of television viewers, it will begin with a more subdued atmosphere.
This season's Champions League competition kicked off in Panevazys, Lithuania's fifth-largest city, on July 9, just 38 days after Real Madrid won the 2023-24 final in London.
At the 7,000-seat Aukstaitia Stadium, FK Panevezys beat Finland's HJK 3-0 in scenes not dissimilar to Wembley Stadium. The joy was short-lived for the Lithuanians as they were eliminated from the Champions League at their next hurdle, a match against Poland's Jagiellonian Bialystok, and then lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League.
Here are some of the most interesting results, teams and storylines you may have missed this season, proving there's much more to European football than the biggest names at the continent's biggest clubs.
The best pub team in the world
The favourites in the first round of the Conference League were Bruno's Magpies. Founded in 2013 as a pub team for drinkers at Bruno's Bar in Gibraltar, the club won 2-0 at home and then shocked Derry City 3-2 on aggregate in the second leg, with an extra-time goal from Evan De Haro preventing an Irish fightback.
“This is definitely my biggest win as a coach and a result that will stay with me for a long time,” Magpies manager Nathan Rooney told ESPN.
“The speed of the club's progress has been unimaginable. The pub team tag is a vital part of the club's foundation and gives the Magpies a unique and special story. But I'm here to bring about change – not just to create a brave pub team that has a bit of success, but to take the club to the next level.”
Their European adventure ended at the hands of FC Copenhagen, who defeated the Magpies 8-1 on aggregate to the team that faced Manchester City in last season's Champions League knockout stages, but they produced an impressive performance at Parken Stadium, which can accommodate 38,000 people – slightly more than the entire population of Gibraltar – including a consolation goal from Olatunde Bayode.
Nevertheless, there is still a chance that the British overseas territory on the south coast of Spain could field a team in the Conference League finals this season. Lincoln Red Imps go into Thursday's second leg against Larne trailing 2-1 on aggregate, hoping to deny Larne the chance to become the first Northern Irish team to reach the group stage of European competition.
But Gibraltar is a vast metropolis compared to the town of Vikingur, another small club on the fringe of UEFA's jurisdiction that is overdoing it in Europe. The Faroe Islands club plays in Nord Lagota (population 640), the smallest village in European football this season. Vikingur beat Liepaja of Latvia before losing to Gent of Belgium.
A historic result for a small country
San Marino's men's national team is officially the weakest in the world and has been bottom of the FIFA rankings since 2018.
But the tiny country surrounded by northern Italy had big reason to celebrate this summer: one of its clubs had won the European Championship for the first time after 13 consecutive years in continental competition.
La Fiorita came from behind to beat Islov in the first qualifying round of the Conference League, a club that shot to brief fame during the first COVID-19 lockdown when the Belarusian Premier League was one of the few leagues still operating, and which consequently attracted fans from around the world.
After losing 1-0 at home, La Fiorita equalised in the away game, played in Hungary due to sanctions against Belarus, and won 4-2 on penalties.
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“For us at San Marino it is an honour and a privilege to compete against the best clubs in Europe, but it also requires great sacrifices,” La Fiorita secretary general Michele Della Valle told ESPN.
“Football is an amateur sport in San Marino and most of the players and staff have jobs. It's hard to balance football, work and family, especially in the summer. After we got through the first round, we had to see who could take time off to play in the next round, but not everyone could.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, an underdog side fell just short in the next round, losing 6-1 and 4-0 to Istanbul Basaksehir, but Nicolas Greco's consolation goal in Turkey was greeted with jubilant celebrations and optimism for the future.
“The level of the domestic league is improving and San Marino teams are doing better in Europe,” Della Valle said. “We are at the stage where getting out of the first round is the bare minimum we can aim for.”
Andorra has more than double the population of San Marino (a staggering 80,000) and is 45 places higher in the FIFA rankings (164th), but the principality, located in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, has traditionally been the scapegoat in Europe, but Inter Club Descaldes has proven a force to be reckoned with in recent years.
They beat Scotland's Hibernian at home in a Conference League qualifier last season and built on that success with a thumping 5-1 win over Bosnian Verez Mostar last month, the biggest win ever for an Andorran team in Europe. In the next round, they defied almost all logic to come back from 4-0 down to lose 4-3 to AEK Athens before succumbing 4-0 at home.
For some outsiders, the dream is still alive. Welsh Premier League champions New Saints are on the brink of becoming the first Welsh team to reach the group stage of a major European competition. TNS, who play just over the border in England at Oswestry, made headlines earlier this year when what was originally listed as 27 consecutive wins was mistakenly awarded to them by Guinness World Records. But the record was later scrapped because one of those wins was on penalties, technically counting it as a draw.
After starting the Champions League with a win over Montenegro's Dečić, TNS suffered losses to Ferencváros and Petrocv of Moldova before setting up a meeting with FK Panevezys in a battle of two teams facing a triple elimination format in all three competitions in the same qualifying season. A resounding 3-0 win in Lithuania puts TNS in a strong position to qualify for the Conference League main draw.
Noah's dramatic journey
The biggest fairy tale in Europe so far this season is that of Noah FC. Founded in 2017, the Armenian club reached the first qualifying round of the Conference League and are the only team still in the competition. Having signed 16 players in the summer, the revamped squad has seemed to hit the ground running.
Noah FC have been hit with drama all season. After a solid win over North Macedonia's KF Shkendija, they did it in style by scoring seven straight goals against Malta's Sliema Wanderers in the first leg of their second round tie. In the third leg they faced AEK Athens and looked an uphill task against a Greek team that had only recently reached the knockout stages of the Europa League in 2018. But no one expected goalkeeper Ognjen Kankarevic to score the decisive goal with a long shot from inside his own box to help secure a 3-1 home win. Kankarevic only conceded one goal in the second leg to help Noah advance.
In the first playoff leg, NOAH took the lead after just three minutes against Slovakian midfielder Ruzomberok, but the match was halted after a lengthy power outage that plunged the stadium into darkness. When the lights came back on, NOAH rallied and won 3-0 to seal a place in the group stage.
If they can hold on to their respective 3-0 leads in the second leg on Thursday, Noah and TNS will be proud to represent Europe's underdogs this season against big names like Chelsea, Fiorentina and Real Betis.
