UEFA Conference League Qualifying Roundup: 98 Teams Chase a Way Through

UEFA Conference League Qualifying Roundup: Second Round Underway

The UEFA Conference League’s second qualifying round kicked off this week with a genuinely enormous field — 98 clubs and pairings across the Champions Path and Main Path, the widest net cast by any of UEFA’s three club competitions at this stage of the summer. First legs were played on July 23, with the decisive return fixtures set for July 30.

The Scale of This Round

Where the Champions League and Europa League second qualifying rounds involve a comparatively modest number of ties, the Conference League’s structure — designed specifically to give clubs from smaller and mid-tier footballing nations a genuine route into European competition — pulls in a far larger field. This round alone split 98 clubs and pairings into 12 Champions Path ties and 86 Main Path ties, a reflection of just how many domestic champions, cup winners and league also-rans across all 55 UEFA member associations get a shot at continental football through this specific competition.

Notable Storylines From the First Legs

Among the most closely watched fixtures were the two Ukrainian clubs beginning their continental campaigns away from home soil due to the ongoing security situation in the country. Polissia opened their qualifying run against Copenhagen at a neutral venue in Košice, Slovakia, while LNZ Cherkasy faced Gent in Płock, Poland — both matches carrying extra weight given the additional logistical and competitive challenges Ukrainian clubs continue to navigate simply to compete in Europe at all.Arsenal Complete Christos Tzolis Signing From Club Brugge

More broadly, reports out of the opening night of fixtures described several surprising results and a number of high-scoring matches across the wider draw, continuing a pattern that’s become increasingly common in the Conference League’s Main Path, where the depth of quality across so many participating nations makes genuine upsets a regular occurrence rather than a rare event.

How the Path Forward Looks

Winners from this round advance to the third qualifying round in early August, where they’ll be joined by sides parachuting down from the Europa League’s own qualifying rounds — specifically, teams eliminated from the Europa League’s second qualifying round main path drop into this competition’s third round, adding another layer of quality to the field as the tournament progresses. The playoff round follows in late August, with the 24 winners advancing to a league phase that will ultimately be joined by 12 teams eliminated from the Europa League’s own playoff round.

Why This Round Matters

For many of the clubs involved, this stage of Conference League qualifying represents the single furthest they’re likely to go in continental competition all season — a genuine landmark for smaller domestic champions and cup winners who rarely get the chance to test themselves against sides from wealthier, more established footballing nations. The Champions Path specifically exists to protect that opportunity, ensuring that domestic champions eliminated earlier in the Champions League and Europa League qualifying ladders still have a route through to a group-stage-equivalent league phase rather than an early exit from Europe altogether.

The Bottom Line

With the return legs still to come on July 30, plenty of these 98 ties remain finely poised. The presence of established continental names like Copenhagen and Gent alongside clubs making rare European appearances captures exactly what makes Conference League qualifying distinct from its two sister competitions — a genuinely wide cross-section of European football, all competing for a shrinking number of places as the tournament narrows toward its league phase in October.

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