Champions Hamrun Spartans will be facing FK Žalgiris of Lithuania in the first leg of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League first qualifying round at the FK Žalgiris stadium in Vilnius on Wednesday, kick-off at 18:00.
Although last season was definitely one of the best for the Spartans, they managed to peak in time for the Closing Round Top 6 to secure a spot in the Final Four of the 360Sports Malta Premier where they defeated Floriana on penalties in the semi-finals and Birkirkara 1-0 in the final under the leadership of coach Winston Muscat.
This summer, the Spartans made several changes to their squad apart from appointing a new coach, Giacomo Modica. Modica started his coaching career as an assistant to Zdenek Zeman with Fenerbahce, Napoli, Salernitana and Avellino. He had his first experience as head coach of Cosenza and later Melfi, Celano and Lecco before re-joining Zeman at Roma and Cagliari. In the past nine years, he had spells at L’Aqula, Mazara Calcio, ACR Messina, Cavese, Vibonese, Casale and once again ACR Messina in the Serie C and D.
Steve Borg, Mayron, Mattias Ellul, Roko Prsa, Talison, Mihael Klepac, Cesar Menacho, Raphael Lopes, Kairou Amoustapha no longer form part of the Hamrun squad but new arrivals include Italian defender Vincenzo Polito, Brazilian right back Rafael Compri, Malta international defensive midfielder Matias Garcia, Lithuanian midfielder Domantas Simkus, Belgian attacking midfielder Mouad El Fanis, Swiss right winger Merlin Hadzi, Italian forwards Saliou Thioune, Junior Djile and Gabriel Adragna, Ivorian forward N’Dri Koffi and Brazilian striker Jonny Robert apart from goalkeeper Matthias Debono and Nikolai Micallef who are back with the Spartans after spending the last two years on loan at Naxxar Lions.
Futbolo klubas Žalgiris, better known as FK Žalgiris, who are based in Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, won the Lithuanian Championship 11 times, the Lithuanian Football Cup 14 times, and the Lithuanian Super Cup 9 times. Last year’s title was the eighth championship in twelve years and the fourth in five years.
After beating Malmo in the second round of Champions League qualifying in July 2022, Žalgiris became the first ever Lithuanian club to qualify for the group stages of a UEFA club competition; where they dropped into the Europa Conference League group stage after losing in the Europa League play-offs. They would finish bottom of their group with five points, and one win from their six games after defeating Pyunik of Armenia and draws with Basel and Slovan Bratislava. Last season, they entered the UEFA Conference League and after eliminating VPS of Finland wiht a 3-1 aggregate score, they were eliminated by Pafos of Cyprus with a 4-2 aggregate score after extra-time.
In 2024, FK Žalgiris won the championship after collecting 79 points from 36 matches, twelve ahead of second-placed Hegelmann and twenty five ahead of Kauno Zalgiris. However, in the 2025 season, they are currently sixth with 25 points from 19 matches, eighteen points behind leaders Kauno Zalgiris.
Hamrun, on the other hand, will be aiming to improve over their 2022/23 performance where they managed to reach the play-off round of the UEFA Europa Conference League after eliminating Alashkert of Armenia, Velez Mostar of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Levski Sofia of Bulgaria. Last season, Hamrun were eliminated by Ballkani of Kosovo from the UEFA Conference League second qualifying round after losing out to Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar on penalties in the first round.
Should they eliminate FK Žalgiris from the first qualifying round, Hamrun Spartans will be facing FC Dynamo Kyiv of Ukraine in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round.
On the other hand, the loser of the clash between Hamrun and FK Žalgiris would enter the UEFA Conference League second qualifying round Champions Path where they would face the loser of the clash between Shelbourne FC (IRL) and Linfield FC (NIR).