Cup winners Rabotnicki start the European adventure tomorrow, with the match against Crusaders FC from Northern Ireland. This will be the first leg from the second qualifying round from UEFA Europa League.

Rabotnicki possibly got the easiest opponent but nothing is too easy of course. The visitors on the first leg completed their summer preparation and also got several new players and they are ready for a new, successful Euro-campaign. Their friendly matches have finished and now only couple of trainings are remaining before their trip to Northern Ireland. Rabotnicki are going to this match with an objective to score a goal and at the same time fully determined to eliminate Crusaders. With every right, we can say that Rabotnicki are the favorites for this two-legged duel and it will be a surprise if they don’t make it through the next round.

Crusaders FC, just like Rabotnicki, qualified for UEFA Europa League by winning the cup competition. In the league, they ended on the third place. Crusaders squad is mainly consisted of domestic players, two of which are playing for the national team. Crusaders were also playing several friendly matches and were scoring a lot, but at  the same time conceding a lot and their opponents were rather weaker teams and relatively unknown for us.

This time, finally, the bookies set the Macedonian team a favorite and 1.85 are the odds for Rabotnicki to win, while Crusaders are as up as 4.00. The kick-off is scheduled for tomorrow, 14th of July at 20.45 CET. Asaf Kenan from Israel will be responsible for the fair play and he will be helped by Shabtai Nahmias and Ezra Bason. The game will be played on Mourneview Park in Lurgan.