Aberdeen have been drawn against either LASK or Dunajska Streda if they get past Sporting CP in the Europa League third qualifying round.
If the Dons are to make the Europa League group stages for the first time, they will have to do it the hard way by defeating one of the strongest teams in the draw in Sporting.
Should they emerge victorious in Portugal on Thursday, it would be LASK, who made the round of 16 in 2019-20, or Slovakian outfit Dunajska Streda who would journey to Pittodrie in October 1.
Here is a brief lowdown on the teams in question.
Sporting CP
A team with 37 league and cup honours to its name, Sporting CP is one of the most recognisable names in European football, owing to its prodigious history of developing young talent.
Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Joao Moutinho were all given their chance by the Lisbon club, as well as national team players like Adrien Silva, William Carvalho and Joao Mario. They also sold prolific midfielder Bruno Fernandes to Manchester United earlier this year.
Their last league title came in 2002 and they finished in Liga NOS last season. They managed three pre-season games before a Covid-19 outbreak that has decimated the first-team squad.
A total of 10 players and staff – including manager Ruben Amorim – had already recorded positive results, before midfielder Joao Palhinha and another member of staff were announced as having the virus on Friday.
Their friendly against Napoli was postponed and their opening league game against Gil Vicente, which was due to take place this weekend, has also fallen by the wayside because of the outbreak.
Sporting’s men’s volleyball team have also returned five positive cases and the entire squad is in quarantine.
It remains to be seen what could happen before the tie with Aberdeen takes place, whether a weakened Sporting side plays the Dons or if a forfeit of the tie is required altogether if more positive cases emerge. Such a fate befell Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia and Kosovan side FC Prishtina in the earlier rounds after outbreaks within their squads.
LASK
The Linz-based side won their opening Austrian Bundesliga fixture 1-0 last Friday and came fourth in the division last season.
They are coached by former Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen and Lens defender Valerian Ismael and have recent strong pedigree in the Europa League.
LASK topped a group in 2019-20 including the Dons’ next opponents Sporting, PSV Eindhoven and Rosenborg, with their only defeat coming in a 2-1 loss in Lisbon.
Another Dutch side were overcome in the round of 32 in the shape of AZ Alkmaar, before Manchester United ended their impressive run with a 7-1 aggregate triumph.
That run came on the back of being one tie away from reaching the Champions League group stages, in which they were eliminated by Club Brugge at the play-off stage.
They also made the third qualifying round during the 2018-19 campaign, in which they were beaten by Besiktas.
DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda
Dunajska have finished in the top three of the Slovak Super Liga for the last three seasons, finishing third in 2018 and 2020 and runner-up in 2019.
The club sold Ivorian striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo to Celtic prior to the start of the 2019-20 campaign and are managed by German Bernd Storck, who has formerly taken charge of Cercle Brugge, the Kazakhstan and Hungary national sides, as well as being an assistant at Dortmund and Wolfsburg.
They have won six out of six so far this season in their domestic league and have come past FH (Iceland) and Jablonec (Czech Republic) in one-off ties in the Europa League.
This is the furthest they have reached in the Europa League after debuting in the 2018-19 campaign. On both occasions they have been knocked out in the second qualifying round, by Dinamo Minsk two years ago and Atromitos in 2019.