Birkirkara to face Metalurg Skopje in the Europa League's first round

by Ivan Mizzi - 25th June 2012

Birkirkara will face FK Metalurg Skopje of Macedonia in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. The draws were held at the UEFA Headquraters, in Nyon and our Club was represented by Vice President Dr. Adrian Delia and Secretary Mr. Ivan Muscat.

The first leg will be played in Malta, on the 5th of July, 2012. The second leg will be played in the Bashkimi Stadium on the 12 July.

Birkirkara were seeded in the draws with a UEFA coefficient rating of 2.116, which is one of the lowest rankings from the seeded teams. FK Metalurg Skopje were unseeded with a coefficient of 1.883, which was the highest ranking from the unseeded teams. This means that the two clubs have very similar rankings.

FK Metalurg is a football club from Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. They currently play in the Macedonian First League. The club was founded in 1964.

Metalurg entered the Macedonian First League in the 1992/93 season and were relegated the same year. After playing 15 seasons in the Macedonian Second League they were back in the Macedonian First League for the 2008/09 season. In the 2009/2010 season they finished in 3rd place and played in Europe for the first time in club history.

Their first outing in the Europa League was not a successful one as they were eliminated by FK Qarabað of Azerbaijan with a 5-2 aggregate following a 4-1 defeat and a 1-1 draw. However, their second spell was much better as they were eliminated with a narrow 3-2 aggregate following a goal-less draw and 3-2 defeat against the Bulgarian side PFC Lokomotiv Sofia.

In the last season they ended in the second place with 67 points from 33 games.

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