Birkirkara to face KS Vllanzia in the first round of the Europa League

by Ayrton Galea - 20th June 2011

Birkirkara will face KS Vllaznia of Albania in the first qualifying round of the Europa League. The draws were held in Nyon and Mr. John Borg and Mr. Victor Zammit attended the draws on behalf of our Club.

KS Vllaznia is an Albanian football club based in Shkodër. KS Vllaznia have been Albanian champions nine times and won the National Cup six times, the last success coming at the end of the 2007-08 season, after a long 21 year drought in the competition.

In the UEFA Competitions they did quite well. In 1978-1988 they faced Sliema Wanderers, and they managed to emerge as winners with 2-0 and 4-0 scores respectively.

In the 2001-2002 UEFA Champions Leagues they faced KR Reykjavik, a team that Birkirkara faced in the Champions League 1st qualifying round two years year before and they were eliminated with an aggregate of 6-1. VK Vllanzia managed to eliminate KR Reykjavik with a 1-0 win and a 1-2 defeat away from home, but they still managed to advance thanks to the away goal. In the second round, they faced Galatasaray and they were eliminated with a score of 6-1.

In 2004 they managed to eliminate Hapoel Beer Sheva of Israel with an aggregate of 4-2, then they faced Slaven Belupo in the 2nd round. VK Vllanzia won the home leg with a solitary goal but they were eliminated as Slaven registered a 2-0 win in the away leg and advanced with a 2-1 aggregate. Coincidentally, Birkirkara had also faced Slaven Belupo and we were eliminated with a solitary goal.

In 2007 VK Vllanzia managed to advance till the second round as well. They had eliminated NK Zagreb of Croatia with an aggregate of 2-2 and they qualified with the away goal. In the second round they suffered two big defeats as they lost the home leg 4-0 and the away leg 6-0.

In the following year they repeated the same success as they eliminated FC Koper with an aggregate of 2-1 but in the second round they were eliminated by S.S.C. Napoli with an aggregate of 8-0.

In 2009-2010 they extended their UEFA positive run as they eliminated Sligo Rovers with an aggregate of 3-2. In the second round they faced Rapid Wien of Austria and they were eliminated with an aggregate of 8-0.

Their positive run ended in 2010-2011 as they failed to enter any UEFA Competitions.

The first leg is on the 30th June and it will be played at the Hibernians Stadium. The second leg will be played one week later on the 7th July and it will be played at Loro Boriçi Stadium. Time for the games are still to be announced.

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