Dundee United Conference League draw confirmed as trip to Luxembourg awaits

The Tannadice club may have expected to find themselves in the Europa League after pipping Aberdeen on the final day of the Scottish Premiership season to secure fourth place.

However, Jim Goodwin's men were demoted to the Conference League after Aberdeen’s shock Scottish Cup final win over Celtic. They will therefore enter Europe’s third-tier event at the second qualifying round, with their opposition now known following Wednesday's draw at the House of European football in Nyon, Switzerland.

Trip to Luxembourg awaits

United will face FC Una Strassen of Luxembourg for a place in the next round with the first leg taking place at Tannadice on Thursday, July 24 before the return leg in Strassen on Thursday, July 31.

Strassen have only played once in European competition in their history, a two-legged match-up against Finnish side Kuopion Palloseura (KuPS) in last season’s Conference League first qualifying round, which they lost 5-0 on aggregate. They play their home matches at the Complexe Sportif Jean Wirtz, which has a capacity of just 2,000.

If United win, as they will be favourites to do, they would move to the third round of qualifying on August 7 and August 14, but are guaranteed to be unseeded. The draw is on July 21, but if they suffer a shock defeat against the minnows, they would crash out of Europe altogether.

A win in the third qualifying round would take Jim Goodwin’s men to the play-offs on August 21 and August 28. Dundee United would be unseeded for the August 4 draw and could face some of the Europa League drop downs and a number of big clubs who are already in the play-offs, including Nottingham Forest (England), Rayo Vallecano (Spain), Strasbourg (France), Mainz (Germany) and Fiorentina (Italy).