Twenty-four ties, the largest bracket in European football, all settled in one evening. Three went to penalties. Two were won by clubs who had lost the first leg by two goals or more. Scotland lost three clubs in the space of two hours, Andorra put a club into a league phase for the first time, and Atalanta, Brighton, Monaco, Ajax and Freiburg all came through without much fuss.
Scotland lost three clubs in one night
Rangers led Jablonec 1-0 from the first leg, lost the return 1-0, and went out on penalties. Motherwell were beaten 7-2 on aggregate by Freiburg. Hibernian lost 3-2 to Gent having drawn the first leg goalless at home. Only Heart of Midlothian survived, and they needed penalties of their own after two 2-2 draws with Rapid Wien. Scotland began the summer with five clubs in Europe. After this night they have two: Celtic, who dropped from the Champions League play-off into the Europa League, and Hearts.
Gibraltar and Andorra are in a league phase
Lincoln Red Imps lost the first leg at home to Larne 2-0. They won the second 3-0 after extra time and went through 3-2 — Gibraltar back in a league phase, five years after Lincoln became the first Gibraltarian club to reach one in 2021. Inter Club d’Escaldes drew both legs with Drita and won 4-2 on penalties, and that one is a genuine first: no Andorran club had ever reached this stage. With Escaldes through, only San Marino and Montenegro have still never put a club into a group or league phase. For coefficient purposes the difference is large: a country with one or two entrants divides everything it earns by a very small number.
All twenty-four ties
Aggregate over two legs, winner listed first. P = decided on penalties.
Twelve more are on the way
The twenty-four winners here are not the whole league phase. The twelve clubs beaten in the Europa League play-off round on the same night — Red Star Belgrade, Trabzonspor, CSKA Sofia, Kairat, Thun, Sint-Truiden, Mjällby, AGF, Kauno Žalgiris, Iberia 1999, Egnatia and Universitatea Craiova — all drop into this competition. That is the Conference League’s defining feature: it is the floor of the European system, and almost nobody who reaches late August leaves it empty-handed.
All twenty-four aggregates verified against UEFA match reports, 28 August 2026. Live in-play scores were not used as a source for any final result.