Hibernians will be hosting FK Spartak Trnava of Slovakia in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League second qualifying round at the Tony Bezzina Stadium on Thursday, kick-off at 18:00.

The Paolites, who qualified for the competition after winning the Meridianbet FA Trophy, will be making a return to European football after three years when they were eliminated from the third qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League by RFS Riga.

Led, once again by Branko Nisevic, Hibernians made slight changes to their squad, signing six new players, namely Romanian goalkeeper Laurentiu Branescu, four Brazilian players – central defender Charleston, defensive midfielder Pedro Cacho and wingers Pablo Alves and Cleiton along with Duane Bonnici and Aiden Zammit. Ayrton Attard is back with the Paolites after a spell on loan with Valletta.

On the other hand, goalkeeper Pablo Sanchez, Kurt Shaw, Apostolos Martinis, Rui Bruno, Khevin Fraga, Stanislav Sorokin and Federico Falcone are no longer with the club.

Facing Spartak Trnava is definitely no easy task but the Paolites will be aiming for a positive result which maintains alive their chances ahead of the second leg.

Spartak Trnava are no new face for local teams and Hibernians in particular. In fact, they already met Hibernians three times apart from being meeting another two Maltese clubs.

Hibernians and Spartak Trnava met for the first time in the first round of the Champions Cup in 1969 with the first leg at home ending in a 2-2 draw and a 4-0 win for Spartak away from home. In 2014, Hibs were drawn with Spartak Trnava in the UEFA Europa League, winning 4-2 in Malta and 5-0 at home. Two years later, the two teams met once again in the UEFA Europa League with Spartak winning both legs 3-0.

In 1997, Spartak were drawn with Birkirkara in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Cup, defeating the Stripes 1-0 away from home and 3-1 at home. On the other hand, in 2021, Spartak Trnava were drawn with Mosta in the UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round with Mosta winning the first leg 3-2 and Spartak winning 2-0 at home.

Being founded in 1923, Spartak Trnava are one of the most successful clubs in the country, having won the Slovak league once and the Slovak Cup nine times apart from winning the Czechoslovak championship five times and the Czechoslovak Cup on four occasions, and reaching the semi-final of the European Cup once and the quarter-final twice. More recently, the club won the Slovak league title in 2018 and Slovak cup in 2019 and in 2018/19, they reached the group stage of the UEFA Europa League.

Last season, Spartak Trnava placed third in the league, twenty points behind champions Slovan Bratislava and two behind runners-up MSK Zilina. However, they won the Slovak Cup after defeating Ruzeomberok 1-0.

This season, they entered the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round but after losing the first leg 0-1 at home, a goal in the 96th minute enabled BK Hacken to edge past Spartak Trnava thanks to a 2-2 draw in the second leg in Sweden.

In recent years, they made it to the group stage of the UEFA Europa League in 2018/19 and the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2023/24. Last year, they were eliminated from the UEFA Conference League third qualifying round by Wisla Krakow.

Hibernians or Spartak Trnava would face the winner of the clash between FK Sarajevo of Bosnia Herzegovina and Universitatea Craiova of Romania in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League.