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On Monday, the draw for the first qualifying round of the 2013-2014 Europa League took place at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The qualifying matches of the Europa League tournament will begin on July 4th and 11th.
Vilnius team travels to Ireland
The Lithuanian vice-champions, the football players of Vilnius "Žalgiris", will have to compete with Dublin's "Saint Patrick's Athletic" from Ireland in the first round.
"This year I haven't seen any matches of "Saint Patrick's Athletic" team, so I don't know their strength. In the near future, we will have to do a lot of work - find and analyze all the information about our future opponents. We will try to watch at least a few of their matches, carefully study the club's history, composition, and performances in previous seasons of European tournaments," - said VMFD "Žalgiris" team coach Marekas Zubas after the draw ceremony.
The first match will take place in Vilnius, but Zubas is not discouraged: "The first home match will give us our advantages. At the end of June after an important match in the A League against Klaipėda's "Atlantas", we will have more time to rest, we won't have to waste our energy on a trip," - noted the specialist.
"Sūduva" will face Macedonians, and later will meet the powerful "Hajduk"
Marijampolė's "Sūduva" team will have a battle with the Macedonian club "Turnovo". The first match for Marijampolė's football players will be away on July 4th, and on July 11th at home.
"Turnovo" finished third in the national championship with 63 points, but was just a hair away from second place, as they were only two goals behind "Metalurg." Interestingly, the team currently does not have any foreign players.
If "Sūduva" football players manage to advance to the second qualifying round, they will have to test their strength against the famous Croatian club Split HNK "Hajduk".
"Kruoja" will not have to travel far
Meanwhile, Pakruojis "Kruoja" will meet with Minsk "Dinamo". According to fkkruoja.lt, the club finished third in the local championship last season, but has deep traditions. "Dinamo" has won the Belarusian championship seven times, and also won the country's cup three times.
The team includes players from Uruguay, Serbia, Romania, Bosnia, and Russia. "Dinamo" has accumulated rich experience in European competitions. For example, in the season 2010/2011 Minsk club in the UEFA Europa League defeated Estonian team "Kalev" (5:1; 5:0), in the third round eliminated Haifa's "Maccabi" (0:1; 3:1), but in the play-off stage lost to Belgium's "Brugge" (1:2; 2:3).
This team is also represented by such a bright star as Russian Dmitry Sychyov. He played in almost 50 matches for the Russian national football team, and in the ranks of Moscow's "Lokomotiv" in the Russian "Premier" league, he stepped onto the field more than 220 times and scored 72 goals. He delighted Russian national team fans with ten scored goals.
Also exceptional is Nigerian national team footballer Obodo. He played 21 matches for the Nigeria national team and scored four goals, as well as played for many years for Italian "Serie A" clubs like "Fiorentina", "Udinese", and others.
Europa League first qualifying round draw:
Vilnius "Žalgiris" - Dublin "Saint Patrick's Athletic" (Ireland)
Marijampolė "Sūduva" - FK "Turnovo" (Macedonia)
Pakruojis "Kruoja" - Minsk "Dinamo" (Belarus)
If successful, the Lithuania clubs in the second qualifying round would face:
"Žalgiris" - Tetovo "Teteks" (Macedonia) or Yerevan "Pyunik" (Armenia)
"Kruoja" - Zagreb "Lokomotiv" (Croatia)
"Sūduva" - Split "Hajduk" (Croatia)
