All about St. Gallen, Benfica's Europa League opponents | OneFootball

Benfica already know the opponent they will face in the second qualifying round of the Europa League. The draw held this Wednesday set up a clash with Switzerland’s St. Gallen, with the first leg scheduled for 23 July on Swiss soil and the second on 30 July at the Estádio da Luz.

Swiss runners-up last season, St. Gallen finished the league 14 points behind champions FC Thun. Although they are not one of the most high-profile clubs in European football, they are a historic side, founded on 19 April 1879, making them the oldest club still active in Switzerland and one of the oldest in all of Europe. Their honours include two Swiss league titles, won in the 1902/03 and 1999/2000 seasons, as well as two Swiss Cups, one League Cup and four second-division titles.

The team is managed by German coach Enrico Maaben, who took charge in the summer of 2024. The squad has an international profile and includes several notable names, among them Ghanaian goalkeeper Lawrence Ati Zigi, Spanish midfielder Jordi Quintillà and young Swiss forward Alessandro Vogt, 21, who finished last season as the competition’s second-top scorer with 15 goals.

In European competitions, the most memorable moment in St. Gallen’s history came in the 2000/01 UEFA Cup. After losing 1-0 in England, the Swiss side pulled off a surprise by eliminating Chelsea thanks to a 2-0 win in the second leg, producing one of the club’s greatest continental achievements.

As for meetings with Portuguese teams, there has been only one previous encounter. In December 2024, St. Gallen hosted Vitória de Guimarães in the league phase of the UEFA Conference League and ended up losing 4-1. The Swiss club play their home matches at Kybunpark, also known as the AFG Arena, a stadium with a capacity of 20,660.

Watch St. Gallen’s celebration of the 2025/26 Cup title:

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.