Champions League & Europa League qualifying results: PAOK win in Kyiv, Benfica stunned
The confetti had barely been swept up. Spain beat Argentina in the final at the MetLife Stadium on 19 July, and by 21 July close to two million people had filled the streets of Madrid to greet the champions. Four days after that, the European club season was already under way — because while the World Cup is the tournament everyone watches, the qualifiers are where the season actually begins. Fifty-two clubs are fighting through the Europa League qualifying system alone, which runs from 9 July all the way to 27 August, and the Champions League and Conference League have their own ladders running in parallel.
The Europa League second qualifying round first legs on 23 July delivered exactly the chaos these ties are famous for. The night's biggest shock came in Switzerland, where St. Gallen beat Benfica 2-1 — a Portuguese giant, European Cup winners twice over, going down away from home to a side most of the continent could not place on a map. In Kyiv, PAOK came from behind to win 3-2 at Dynamo, Volodymyr Brazhko having opened the scoring for the hosts with a long-range strike before the Greeks turned the tie around. Hajduk Split beat Pafos 2-0 in a raucous Poljud, Qarabağ and CSKA Sofia cancelled each other out 0-0, and Maccabi Tel-Aviv produced the result of the round, thumping Sheriff Tiraspol 5-0.
Not one of those ties is finished. Every one of them is decided over two legs, and the return matches land on 30 July: PAOK host Dynamo Kyiv at a Toumba that will be at boiling point, Benfica must overturn their deficit at the Estádio da Luz, Pafos need two goals in Cyprus, and Midtjylland face Beşiktaş with everything still open. This is the cruelty and the beauty of qualifying — a first-leg lead is never safe, and a one-goal deficit at home to a giant is not the disaster it looks like on paper.
The Champions League is running its own version of the same story. Its second qualifying round first legs were played on 21 and 22 July, with second legs on 28 and 29 July, and the ladder does not stop there: the third qualifying round follows on 4, 5 and 11 August, then the play-offs on 18, 19, 25 and 26 August. The Europa League and Conference League run a round behind, with their third qualifying rounds on 6 and 13 August and play-offs on 20 and 27 August. Only when the last of those is settled does the league phase field become final.
What makes all of this matter more than it used to is the prize at the end. Since 2024 all three UEFA competitions run a 36-team league phase — one single Swiss-model table, eight different opponents each — instead of the old group stage. Survive a qualifying tie and you are not looking at a short six-match group campaign; you are looking at a guaranteed run of European nights against varied opposition, plus prize money capable of reshaping a club's entire budget. That is why a July evening in Split or St. Gallen carries the tension of a knockout final.
For the neutral, this is the best football on the calendar and nobody talks about it. Unfamiliar teams, wild aggregate swings, giant-killings that would never happen in a group stage. For anyone following the odds it is famously unpredictable too: two legs, tired legs after long journeys, squads still weeks from full fitness, and new signings who have not yet settled. Upsets are not rare here — they are the format. Follow the fixtures and prices as they move on our live fixtures and odds page.
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