Beitar Jerusalem now know exactly what stands between them and a place in the Conference League's league phase for the first time in the club's history, ONE reported on Monday: the winner of a playoff pairing between Portugal's Braga and Belarusian side Dinamo Minsk.
The catch is that the reward is entirely conditional. Almog Cohen's side must first get past Austria Vienna in the third qualifying round, a tie that opens at Teddy Stadium on Thursday, August 6, before the return leg in Vienna a week later on August 13.
Only if Beitar eliminate the Austrian club would the Braga-or-Dinamo-Minsk fixture become relevant, with the playoff round set for August 20 and 27 and Beitar hosting the first leg.
It is a route into territory Beitar have never reached. As ONE put it, the club has still never tasted a European campaign that runs into the winter — something a playoff-round appearance, let alone progression into the league phase itself, would finally deliver.
Getting this far already required nerve. Beitar won the first leg of their second qualifying round tie away to AEK Larnaca 1-0, but needed a dramatic penalty shootout to see out the Cypriot side and reach the third round, underlining how fine the margins have been on this run.
Austria Vienna, one of Austrian football's most decorated clubs, represent a significant step up in profile from Larnaca, and their own path to the playoff would run through the same Braga-Dinamo Minsk winner that awaits Beitar if Cohen's team turns the tie the other way.
For now, the immediate task is simple and unforgiving: beat Austria Vienna over two legs, starting at home this Thursday, or the conversation about Braga, Dinamo Minsk and a first European winter never gets past the hypothetical stage.
