Fenerbahce v Lyon, Tuesday 8pm Romelu Lukaku is the latest familiar face to rock up at Fenerbahce. The 33-year-old striker is, however, unlikely to be fit for Lyon’s visit to Istanbul on Tuesday – he sat out Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Genclerbirligi, the club his father played for in the 1990s. Fenerbahce have also added Mason Greenwood and Nathan Aké to a squad that includes Ederson, N’Golo Kanté and Marco Asensio.
Failure to get past Lyon, who are aiming to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since reaching the semi-finals in 2019-20, would not be the best start to Ismail Kartal’s fourth spell as head coach. Celtic v LASK, Wednesday 8pmEven before seeing Rangers and Hearts suffer damaging qualifying defeats this summer, Celtic would have needed no reminding of how much jeopardy these ties contain. Kairat Almaty dumped Brendan Rodgers’ side out at this stage last season on penalties after two goalless draws.
In both legs against LASK, the Austrian champions, Celtic will have to do without Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as the midfielder serves a three-match ban for a red card he received playing for Besiktas in the Conference League in 2023. Trabzonspor v Ferencvaros, Thursday 6pmMohamed Salah could make his home debut for Trabzonspor when they take on Ferencvaros in Turkey. The former Liverpool forward came off the bench – along with Cape Verde’s Sidny Lopes Cabral – in the second half of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Kasimpasa.
Ferencvaros will not be overawed by the occasion, with a glamour friendly against Real Madrid in Budapest part of their pre-season preparations. Among the ranks of last season’s Hungarian Cup winners, who replaced Robbie Keane with Balazs Borbely in the dugout this summer, is Salah’s former Liverpool teammate Naby Keïta. They have been to Serbia, the Netherlands and Poland in three rounds of Europa League qualifying so far.
Egnatia v Lillestrøm, Thursday 6pmHans Erik Ødegaard, father of Arsenal’s Premier League-winning captain Martin, has been working miracles in his two years in charge of Lillestrøm. After being appointed head coach following the Norwegian side’s relegation in 2024, he oversaw their immediate return to the top flight unbeaten and won the Norwegian Cup in the process. Ødegaard, who coached in Real Madrid’s academy after his son’s move there in 2015, will lead Lillestrøm into their first European main draw since the Uefa Cup in 2000-01 as defeat would still guarantee them a Conference League place.
Egnatia are the Albanian champions from the past three years and overturned a 3-1 deficit to Shamrock Rovers in the previous round. Tromsø v Brighton, Thursday 6pmSussex is officially in drought but Brighton supporters will have to dig out their coats if they are making the trip to Europe’s most northern football club. It is forecast to be 13C and raining by the time Fabian Hürzeler’s side kick off in Tromsø, situated over 200 miles into the Arctic Circle.
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