HIBERNIAN do not know their second round qualifying opponent for the Uefa Europa Conference League just yet, but they will face either Mons Calpe or FC Santa Coloma.
The pair will go head to head in first round qualifying of the competition and the winners of the tie will head to Easter Road on July 22.
The away leg will then take place a week later and Jack Ross’ outfit will either be heading Gibraltar (Mons Calpe) or to Andorra (FC Santa Coloma).
Uefa have introduced the Conference League to allow more teams the opportunity to strut their stuff on the European stage and Mons Calpe will be competing in European competition for the very first time this season.
Their star man is Uruguyan left back Diego Martín Caballero. Despite now playing his football Gibraltar, the 30-year-old is an experienced figure and previously played in La Liga with Girona.
Mons Calpe manager Cesar Vega is also Uruguayan and he was previously manager of Mexico's Under 23s side.
Having been around for just four years this season’s European excursion will go down in the shallow history books for Mons Calpe. Last season they finished in fourth place of the Gibraltar Premier League, 16 points behind champions Lincoln Red Imps.
FC Santa Coloma are more familiar to European competition and have one two Champions League qualifying ties in recent years. They firstly defeated Banants of Armenia before losing to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 2014/15 season and they then went on to beat San Marino's Tre Penne before going out to Feronikeli of Kosovo in the 2019/20 campaign.
The Andorran outfit have won their respective league title 13 times and also won their domestic cup competition on ten occasions.
They are currently managed by former Barcelona goalkeeper Albert Jorquera, who was capped internationally by the Catalonia national side.
Santa Coloma’s star man is without doubt central midfielder Marc Rebes. The 26-year-old playmaker netted the only goal when Andorra beat Hungary 1-0 in 2017, which was their first win for 68 matches.
MONS CALPE
FORMED: 2013
STADIUM: Victoria Stadium (2,000)
HONOURS: Gibraltar league runners-up once.
MANAGER: Cesar Vega.
STAR MAN: Diego Martín Caballero.
or
FC SANTA COLOMA
FORMED: 1986.
STADIUM: Estadi Comunal d’Andorra la Vella (1,300).
HONOURS: Andorra league champions 13 times, Andorra Cup winners ten times.
MANAGER: Albert Jorquera
STAR MAN: Marc Rebes.
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