The Macedonian participant will have to match the champions of Azerbaijan in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.

photo: The moment Sileks was drawn

With 17 seeded and 17 unseeded teams in the draw, earlier today the list of potential opponents was narrowed down by UEFA. Unseeded Sileks could get Astana (Kazakhstan), Qarabağ (Azerbaijan), Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Israel) or Dinamo (Georgia).

Today’s draw decided that Sileks will face Qarabağ with the Azeris acting as hosts in the one-off tie. In case of a draw extra time and a penalty shoot-out will follow right after the 90 minutes. Winners will advance to the second qualifying round, while all losing sides will progress to the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round.

The match will be played on 18th of 19th of this month in Azerbaijan or at neutral venue. Information about the ground will follow.

Sileks did not gain a spot in the Champions League qualifiers by winning the Macedonian league. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the 1.MFL did not end and FFM didn’t even crown a champions. First placed at the moment of the interruption was Vardar who lost their Champions League place after failing to obtain a UEFA license and Sileks as next on the table took over their spot.

The Kratovo based club will feature in this competition after 22 years. Last time they played was back in the summer of 1998 when they got eliminated in the opening round by Belgian side Club Brugge with 0:0 in Kratovo and a 1:2 road defeat. Previously they debuted an year earlier first beating Israeli champions Beitar 1:0 but then falling 0:3 in Jerusalem.