Hapoel Tel Aviv's return to European competition begins in earnest this week, with a second qualifying round tie against Bulgaria's Ludogorets Razgrad standing between the Reds and a rare tilt at the UEFA Conference League's third qualifying round. Should Hapoel advance, the reward is a meeting with the winner of a parallel tie between Slovakia's MŠK Žilina and Poland's GKS Katowice, whose paths to this stage were shaped by their own European campaigns earlier in the summer.
The first leg against Ludogorets is scheduled for Thursday, July 23, in Tel Aviv, with the return fixture set for July 30 at Ludogorets' Huvepharma Arena in Razgrad. Ludogorets arrive as a club still adjusting to a changed domestic landscape: after fourteen consecutive Bulgarian championships, their title run was ended this season by Levski Sofia, which sealed the 2025-26 crown in early May. The Bulgarian side remains one of the country's most experienced European campaigners regardless of the shift at home.
Hapoel Tel Aviv's presence in the qualifying rounds at all reflects a rapid turnaround domestically. The club, newly returned to the top flight of Israeli football, finished fourth in last season's championship playoffs, a result that was enough to secure a continental berth via the Conference League path.
Waiting in the wings, contingent on results over the next ten days, are Žilina and Katowice, who play their own second qualifying round tie on the same two dates, July 23 and July 30. Žilina reached this stage after a bruising Europa League exit: the Slovak club had entered continental competition as reigning Slovak Cup winners, having beaten FC Košice 3-1 in the final in May, but fell 3-2 on aggregate to Croatia's Hajduk Split in the first qualifying round, winning the first leg before a heavier second-leg defeat sent them down the UEFA ladder into the Conference League.
Katowice's route was more straightforward. A fifth-place finish in the Polish Ekstraklasa, sealed on the final day of the season with a 1-1 draw against Pogoń Szczecin that overtook Legia Warsaw in the standings, was enough for continental qualification. It marks the Silesian club's return to Europe after a 23-year absence rather than a debut on the continental stage — Katowice previously featured in the old European Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup between 1970 and 2003, including ties against Barcelona, Rangers, Benfica and Galatasaray.
Both sets of Slovak and Polish observers regard Žilina as the likelier of the two to advance, pointing to the Slovak club's deeper recent European pedigree relative to a Katowice side still finding its footing on the continental stage after such a long absence. Nothing is decided, however, until the two legs are played out over the coming week and a half.
For now, the immediate task in Tel Aviv is Ludogorets, and Hapoel's coaching staff have been careful not to look beyond a tie against a club with genuine European experience even in a transitional season. A result across the two legs against the Bulgarians remains the only thing standing between Hapoel Tel Aviv and a third qualifying round assignment against one of two contrasting European sides — one steeped in continental football, the other rediscovering it after more than two decades away.
