Cercle will compete in the new league phase of the Conference League against Austrian LASK, Turkish Basaksehir, Slovenian Olimpija, Scottish Hearts, Swiss FC St.Gallen and Icelandic Vikingur Reykjavik. The debates will start on October 3 with the opening match day.
Just like the Champions League and the Europa League, the format underwent a complete metamorphosis. In the new format, the 36 participating teams were no longer divided into groups, but placed in one league.
Each team plays six matches against six different opponents, three at home and three away. The teams were paired from an opponent from each of the six pots.
Top eight directly to final
After the league phase, the top eight teams advance directly to the round of 16. Numbers 9 to 24 play against each other in play-offs for a place in the next round. For numbers 25 to 36, the European adventure is irrevocably over, since the safety net of the Europa League no longer exists.
From the round of 16 onwards, everything remains unchanged, with a first-and-second leg until the semi-finals and the final in Wroclaw, Poland.
Fourteen years
Cercle finished the Champions’ Play-offs in the Jupiler Pro League last season in a respectable fourth place and thus after fourteen years is playing in Europe again. The Association ended up in the third of four preliminary rounds for the Europa League, but lost to the Norwegian Molde.
On Thursday, the West Flemish team also lost 1-4 to the Polish Wisla Krakow in the play-offs of the Conference League, but their comfortable 1-6 victory in the first leg was enough to reach the main tournament.
During the previous European campaign in the 2010-2011 season, Cercle won in the second preliminary round of the Europa League against Finnish side TPS Turku before being eliminated by Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta.
