We're back to discuss last Thursday's conclusion to the Europa and Conference League final qualifying round (as well as a little Champions League)!

It was a week of firsts, including Hamrun Spartans becoming the first Maltese club to qualify for a European group stage. Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano also survived to earn their inaugural shot at Thursday night football.

The other Conference League big boys survived by the skin of their teeth – both Mainz and Strabourg got huge bounce-back wins after disappointing 1st leg performances, and Fiorentina overcame a dreadful 78 minutes to eventually see off Polissya.

Elsewhere, Poland, Greece, and Cyprus continued their excellent campaigns, while the Turks and Scots had a nightmarish week, including embarrassing Champions League defeats for both Celtic and Rangers.

Cheers Giacomo Modica!

The Playoff Qualifying Round has kicked off in the Europa & Conference Leagues, and it's all to play for!

The headline in the Conference League was the big boys struggling, with Scandanavian sides taking full advantage. Palace managed just a 1-0 home win vs Fredrikstad amidst a frustrating week off the pitch, Strasbourg was held scoreless in France by Brøndby, & Mainz suffered a 2-1 away defeat at the hands of Rosenborg.

Elsewhere, both Irish sides got huge victories, including a shock win at Santa Clara for Conference League veterans Shamrock. Plus Virtus stayed alive, maintaining just a single goal deficit heading back to San Marino, where they hope to be the first club from their nation to qualify for a European group stage.

Meanwhile in the Europa League, Utrecht continues their impressive qualifying run, Brann-AEK Larnaca and Panathinaikos-Samsunspor set themselves up for terrific 2nd legs, and Red Imps' and KuPS' magical qualifying runs come to an end – but fear not! We'll see them both in the Conference League league phase.

All that plus more praise for the Cypriot, Norwegian, Polish, and the Dutch leagues, and a quick check in on Champions League qualifying!

Cheers Per-Mathias Høgmo!

We're officially back for the 2025-26 Europa & Conference League campaigns, and as always, we're kicking things off with the 3rd qualifying rounds.

The 1st legs were full of action, and we discuss some major upsets from old friends (Celje, Víkingur Reykjavík, AEK Larnaca), and new (Hibs, Shelbourne).

Then we explore Cyrpus' remarkable European successes of late, why the Irish league is on the rise, if this is a breakout season for Scottish clubs, and speculate whether Malta is the next country to pop their cherry and qualify a team for European group stages for the very first time.

We're also introduced to some clubs previously unfamiliar to us, including FC Polissya Zhytomyr, whose name we hopefully did not butchered to unreasonable degree.

It feels good to be back – come hang!

Cheers Joey O'Brien!

Jacob Hill is back on the pod, this time to tackle the 2012 NBA draft - and boy is this one a stinker!

We start by revisiting each of the top 30 picks (plus some notable 2nd rounders), and in the process lauding its notable stars, Damian Lillard, Anthony Daivs, and Draymond Green, investigating Chad Ford's questionable takes, exploring one of the strangest NBA players of all time in Royce White, and running out of adjectives to describe just how abject the back half of the 1st Round is.

In the second part of the show, we tackle our redraft and do our best to build balanced 8-man rosters despite the putrid depth available to us.

Who goes first? How high should Bradley Beal go? Who's left sitting solemnly in the green room? Find out on our very special addition of Any Given Bracket!

Cheers to Dion Waiters!

We were going to be off this week, but UEFA demanded that we get on Zoom and hammer out an emergency podcast after their ruling that Crystal Palace is removed from the Europa League and instead will play Conference League football in 2025-26.

We talk about how we got here - including Lyon winning appeal to stay in Ligue 1 (& thus Europe) - Palace's next steps, and how Nottingham Forest factors into all this, then vent our frustrations about UEFA's decision-making process and the double standard in the penalties (or lack there of) imposed on clubs and ownership groups of different sizes.

Cheers Oliver Glasner! You didn't deserve this!

It's time for the way-too-early Conference League 2025-26 preview! Except it really isn't too early - the 1st qualifying rounds start THIS WEEK if you can believe it.

But we're starting off with the 5 "big league" clubs who start their journey in the playoff qualifying round (aka the final step before the League Phase): Nottingham Forest, Rayo Vallecano, Mainz, Strasbourg, and of course, the Conference League house band - Fiorentina.

We take a look at what each club has to offer on and off the pitch, why we're so excited to watch them, and what order they should be ranked as tournament contenders.

Then, we move on to some lesser known participants from all over the continent - and some off of it. We take pitstops in Liechtenstein, Gibraltar, Kosovo, the Faroe Islands, and the Azores, as we introduce (or reintroduce) some of our favorite stories from the upcoming qualifying rounds and debate which minnows could make a Cinderella run at the League Phase!

Cheers Marc Schneider!

With the 2024-25 season in the books and Spurs crowned Europa League champions, we're back to do a way-too-early preview of next season's competition!

The upcoming campaign is much anticipated by us at Any Given Thursday thanks to a treasure trove of interesting contestants.

There's a group of obvious contenders, including clubs with appearances in last year's Champions League - Aston Villa, Bologna, and Stuttgart (the latter two also lifted surprise trophies in the Coppa Italia and DFB Pokal, respectively) - and those intimately familiar with Europa - Roma, Betis, Freiburg, and Lyon.

And there's a delightful accoutrement of underdog participants, including those qualified via the league - Celta Vigo, Rayo Vallecano, Utrecht, Samsunspor - and those who went on charming upset runs to win their domestic cups - Crystal Palace, Go Ahead Eagles, Aberdeen, Wolfsberger, Fredrikstad, and Sigma Olomouc.

On the pod, we briefly touch on each of these clubs (and more!), offering just a taste of what we can expect on their Europa League journey, plus the significances of their achievements to date. Then we look ahead to the early qualifying rounds, predict who will advance, and debate who the leading contenders are to hoist the trophy next May.

And yes, we do also address the crisis at Lyon.

Cheers to us!

On the pod today, we take a look back at the joyous 2024-25 Conference League season, which ended in a Chelsea triumph, but featured many raucous, riveting, and memorable moments.

It was a campaign for the UNDERDOG, and we revisit many of our favorites, including the incomparable NK Celje, the delicious Djurgårdens IF, and the fearless Jagiellonia Białystok, all of whom made deep tournament runs.

We laud the newbies, too – FC Noah, The New Saints (TNS), and Larne FC – for their very competitive debuts in group-stage European football, as well as Shamrock Rovers for highlighting the quickly-ascending Irish league (and their 16-year old striker).

We also tackle some of the biggest disappointments, including İstanbul Başakşehir and Heart of Midlothian (Hearts), and debate whether it's fair to include Fiorentina in this category.

Finally, we pay tribute to the best games and goals of the campaign, before waxing poetic about the virtues of our precious Conference League.

Cheers Enzo Maresca and all favorite underdogs!

Timecodes:

3:45 - Chelsea's run to the title 11:05 - Best storylines and underdogs 24:30 - Biggest disappointments and underachievers 39:00 - UECL game of the season 49:05 - UECL goal of the season 54:50 - What makes the Conference League so special?