Malta’s three representatives in the Europa League qualifiers, Gżira United, Hibernians and Balzan, will all head to Eastern Europe next month following the first qualifying round draw which was held on Tuesday, in Nyon.

Hibernians, the BOV Premier League runners up last season, will be travelling to Belarus to take on Shakhtyor Soligorsk.

This is the first time that the Belorussian side will be facing Maltese opposition in UEFA club competitions.

The six-time Belarus champions are hopeful of making further progress in the Europa League this season after they never managed to move past the second qualifying round of UEFA’s secondary competition in the last four years.

Gżira United were drawn to face Croatian side Hajduk Split.

Hajduk are no new faces to Maltese football as the glamourous Croatian side has already travelled to Malta on three other occassions having played Floriana in the Champions Cup in 1975 and then faced Żurrieq and Birkirkara in the UEFA Cup.

Balzan will be heading to Slovenia to take on FK Domzale.

Domzale, two-times Slovenian champions, will be looking to try and qualify for the group stages, with their best effort coming in 2017 when they were knocked out by Marseille in the play-off round.

The Europa League first qualifying round will played on July 11 and 18.

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