Difficult test for Hibernians in Latvia

Hibernians will be facing Riga FC in the first leg of the UEFA Europa Conference League third qualifying round at the Daugavas stadions in Riga on Thursday, kick-off at 19:00.

The Paolites reached this stage after defeating SS Folgore of San Marino with a 7-3 aggregate score, following a 3-1 win in San Marino and a 4-2 victory at the Centenary Stadium last week. Therefore Hibs, who were eliminated by Flora Tallinn from the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, will be participating in the third qualifying round of a UEFA competition for the first time in the history of the club.

Against Riga FC, the task will obviously be much harder as although they are a relatively new club, being formed just seven years ago following the merger of two clubs, they qualified for the play-off stage of the UEFA Europa League two years ago, losing out to Copenhagen and the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League last season, losing out to Celtic.

They won the last three championships in Latvia and are currently joint-second in this year’s campaign. Like Hibernians, they were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League, losing out to Malmo of Sweden with a 1-2 aggregate score but then defeated Shkendija of North Macedonia 3-0 on aggregate.

A clash with either Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar or Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia awaits the winner.

The second leg will be played at the Centenary Stadium on Thursday 12.