Floriana will be hostng Haverfordwest County AFC of Wales in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League first qualifying round at the Centenary Stadium on Tuesday, kick-off at 19:30.
The Greens are taking part in the competition following their third-place finish in the 360Sports Malta Premier. Although they were one of the most consistent sides throughout the season, finishing on top in the Opening Round and third in the Closing Round, just one point behind the two joint-leaders, they lost to Hamrun Spartans on penalties in the semi-finals of the Final Four, defeating Sliema Wanderers 4-0 in the final for third place.
However, this summer, the Greens made wholesale changes to the squad. Goalkeeper Christoffer Mafoumbi, Guy Serge Yameogo, Oualid El Hasni, Jork Becerra, Alexandros Kouros, Matias Garcia, Gabriel Sotomayor, Fernandinho, Franklin Sasere and Elvis Mashike were not retained or moved elsewhere along with coach Darren Abdilla.
The new coach is Portuguese Daniel Portela who had served as coach of the Rio Ave Under-17 team, Varzim Under-19 team, FC Onze Bravos do Maquis in Angola, FC Chibuto in Mozambique, Salgueiros and CD Fatima apart from working as assistant coach with a number of other teams in Portugal, Kuwait and the UAE.
The club signed no less than ten new players, namely Brazilian goalkeeper Guilherme Cioletti, Brazilian central defender Iago Mendonca, Argentine central defender Lucas Lopez – formerly of Marsaxlokk, Tanzanian midfielder Charles M’Mombwa, Argentine attacking midfielder Federico Varela, Serbian winger Todor Glisovic, Mattia Veseljii and two forwards – Portuguese Rui Areias and Gambian Mustapha Jah.
Haverfordwest County Association Football Club are based in Haverfordwest, Wales. The club was founded in 1899 and was variously known as Haverfordwest FC, Haverfordwest Town, and Haverfordwest Athletic before adopting the current name. Until a few weeks ago, they had Malta international defender Luke Tabone on their books.
Last season, the Bluebirds finished third in the Welsh Premier League on 51 points, twenty seven points behind champions The New Saints and thirteen behind runners-up Penybont. Thanks to this result, they managed to match their best ever placing in the Welsh top division which they had first managed to obtain in 2003/04.
This is only their third participation in European competitions. In 2004 they were eliminated from the UEFA Cup by FH of Iceland with a 1-4 aggregate score. Then in 2023, they qualified for the UEFA Europa Conference League and after eliminating Shkendija of North Macedonia 3-2 on penalties following a 1-1 aggregate score, they were eliminated by B36 of the Faroe Islands with a 3-2 aggregate score.
Last season, Floriana were eliminated from the second qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League by Vitoria Guimaraes and therefore this year, they hope to do better by, at least, matching their run in the 2020/21 campaign when they had reached the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.
The second leg between Haverfordwest County and Floriana will be played on Thursday 17 at the Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
The winner of this two-legged tie will be facing FC Ballkani of Kosovo who had eliminated Hamrun Spartans last season with a 2-0 aggregate score.