The Welsh clubs playing in the Europa League have discovered their fate as the draw was made in Switzerland on Monday.
Llanelli face a trip into the unknown as they were drawn with FK Tauras of Lithuania whilst Port Talbot face TPS Turku of Finland in the first qualifying round whilst Bangor City revisit Honka Espoo in the second round.
Llanelli confident
Llanelli secretary, Nigel Richards, was delighted the Reds had come out of the hat first.
"I’m glad the first leg will be at home at Stebonheath," Richards told Sgorio.
"We don’t know much about Tauras to be honest except that they are fourth in the Lithuanian league at the moment."
Llanelli have played a Lithuanian side in the past, going out on away goals in the 2007 Intertoto Cup to Vetra Vilnius, but Richards was confident the present Llanelli side would go one better this time.
"The side we have at the moment is a stronger side than the one which played Vetra, so I’m confident we can progress in this tournament."
TPS trip for Port Talbot
Despite this being Port Talbot’s first trip into Europe, the Steelmen’s manager, Mark Jones, has previous experience of Finnish football.
Jones was Carmarthen Town manager wen the Old Gold lost 8-1 on aggeragate to Tampere United in the 2006 Intertoto Cup.
And Jones was a little disappointed to have been drawn away from home in the first leg.
"I would have liked to have played them at home first and seen what they were about before we went to Finland," Jones told Sgorio.
"They are a bigger team than we would have like to have drawn, they’ve got some very experienced players like Jonatan Johansson who played for Rangers and Charlton.
"But we’re going to go out there and have a right go at it."
Deja vu for Bangor
There was a huge sigh of disappointment from the direction of Bangor City and Honka Espoo when both teams were drawn to face each other for the second season running in the Europa League.
"Both sets of officials were sat next to each other discussing last year’s games," said Bangor City secretary, Gwynfor Jones.
"But at least we know what to expect both in terms of travelling and what to expect on the pitch," he added.
The Citizens lost 2-0 out in Finland before losing 1-0 at the Racecourse last season, but Jones was confident they would do better this year.
"It was a close game in Wrexham last season and we’ve strengthened since then so I’m confident we can go one better this season," predicted Jones.
If Port Talbot and Llanelli were to join Bangor in the second round, the Reds would face a trip to Cyprus to face Apoel of Nicosia whilst Cercle Brugge of Belgium await the winners of the Port Talbot v TPS tie.
