On Tuesday July 9th, at the same time that 17-year-old Lamine Yamal was turning Adrien Rabiot inside-out and bending the ball into the top corner, The New Saints got their season underway.

It’s a familiar feeling for many clubs across Europe, embarking on a long process of qualifying for the league stage of the three UEFA competitions.

A 4-1 aggregate win over Montenegrin champions FK Dečić in the first round of Champions League qualifying handed them a safety net.

That came in handy as they would go on to lose 7-1 to Hungarian title holders Ferencváros, despite a very respectable 2-1 loss at Park Hall Stadium.

This defeat meant that TNS dropped from the Champions League to Europa League and faced a trip to Moldova, with FC Petrocub Hîncești in their way.

Danny Davies’ own goal in Chișinău was the only thing to separate the two sides over 180 minutes, while TNS fans were ruing their luck in the second leg, as the ball would simply not go in.

By virtue of being Cymru Premier champions, TNS had one last chance to make the league phase, this time of the Europa Conference League. Lithuanian champions FK Panevėžys stood in their way of more Welsh European glory.

A 3-0 win in Panevėžys and a 0-0 draw at Park Hall means that TNS will be in the league phase of a UEFA competition for the first time in it’s history.

TNS were not the only Welsh club in Europe this season.

Caernarfon Town were comfortably dispatched by Polish outfit Legia Warsaw 11-0 on aggregate, spelling the end of a much shorter European journey for Town.

Barry Town’s European Tour

Prior to the current format of UEFA competitions, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup was a source of many highlights for Welsh sides, including Bangor City’s 2-0 win against Napoli in 1962-63.

However, following the rise of the Champions League in the early 1990s, the tournament saw a marked decline, ultimately seeing the competition abolished and merged into the UEFA Cup, now the UEFA Europa League.

Welsh clubs have found European results harder to come by, but there have been other highlights worthy of a mention, none more so than Barry Town.

Following their exile from the English pyramid, Barry had returned to the Welsh League and opted to become the Welsh League’s first fully professional club ahead of the 1995-96 season.

That year they won the league, finishing 17 points ahead of Newtown and subsequently qualified for the 1996-97 UEFA Cup preliminary round.

There, they would face Latvian newbies FC Dinaburg, founded as a successor to Auseklis and Vilan-FD.

After a tense 0-0 home leg at Jenner Park in Barry, Town travelled to Latvia on the 24th of July, winning 2-1 thanks to a late Craig Evans goal.

The next qualifying round saw Barry travel to Hungary and face Budapesti Vasutas.

Things looked bleak following a 3-1 defeat in Budapest, but Barry turned things around with a 3-1 of their own, with Evans the hero again, scoring the third goal along with the decisive penalty in a 4-2 shootout win.

What followed was an all-Celtic tie against Scottish side Aberdeen in the first round proper.

On the 10th of September, Barry lost 3-1 in Aberdeen but were unable to overturn the deficit, eventually drawing 3-3 at Jenner Park for a 6-4 aggregate defeat.

Swansea’s Famous Valencia Victory

While not a Cymru Premier side, Swansea City’s European adventure of 2013-14 is the most famous example of a Welsh side in Europe.

Following Swansea’s League Cup win in the 2012-13 season, Michael Laudrup’s side qualified for the Europa League.

The start of their European campaign couldn’t have gone any better, a 0-3 away win at 10-man Valencia with Wilfried Bony, Michu and Jonathan de Guzmán on the scoresheet.

‘The Valencia Game’ as it’s commonly known by Swansea fans, is widely regarded among them as the greatest away day in Welsh football history.

The form continued to the next match of the group stage as a Wayne Routledge goal earnt a 1-0 win against St. Gallen before late goals in both matches by Kuban Krasnodar saw them gain back-to-back 1-1 draws.

A 0-1 home loss to Valencia and 1-0 away defeat to St. Gallen put a dampener on things, but Swansea qualified for the knockout stages, nonetheless.

Unfortunately, finishing second in the group stages to eventual semi-finalists Valencia meant that Swansea drew Napoli in the round of 32.

Following a creditable 0-0 draw at the then Liberty Stadium, Swansea travelled to Napoli but suffered defeat as goals from Lorenzo Insigne, Gonzalo Higuain and Gökhan Inler consigned the Welsh club to a 3-1 defeat.

With both Swansea and Cardiff City both entrenched in the EFL Championship, it seems that the most likely club to ‘do a Swansea’ would be the ever-growing Wrexham, under Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

TNS’ long road through Europe

Back to reality, and TNS have now joined this historic club.

European football is now within touching distance; however, this is not the first time TNS have been within touching distance of European group games.

The New Saints have come close on several occasions.

In the 2010-11 season, TNS lost 5-2 on aggregate against CSKA Sofia following a 3-0 first leg defeat and in 2018-19 they beat Lincoln Red Imps 3-2 only to follow it up with a 1-5 aggregate defeat against FC Midtjylland.

The following season a 9-0 aggregate defeat to Ludogorets put paid to their European hopes but in 2020-21 TNS came very close.

A 3-1 win against MŠK Žilina got them through the first qualifying round, but with a 1-2 lead against Icelandic side Tórshavn in extra time TNS conceded in the final minutes of stoppage time.

Ultimately the lottery of penalties resulted in a 5-4 sudden death defeat seeing The New Saints out.

This time, TNS can look forward to a season of European football as they prepare for potential trips to Chelsea or Fiorentina, Real Betis or FC Copenhagen.

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