The New Saints travel to Slovenian side Celje in their final League Phase game in the UEFA Conference League on Thursday, knowing that they must win to stand any chance of progressing to the knockout stage play-offs.
A place in the top 24 is the target, with the Saints currently 32nd in the table on three points – two points adrift of 24th-place Basaksehir – after a 2-0 home defeat to Panathinaikos last week.
It means that they need to triumph in Slovenia and hope that the eight teams directly above them drop points. Two of those, TSC and Noah, face each other, while five meet higher-ranked opposition. The other, handily, is Celje who sit 25th on four points.
All of those points have come at home for the Slovenian side, who won 5-1 against Basaksehir on Matchday 2 before a 3-3 draw with Jagiellonia on Matchday 4. They were beaten 2-0 away at Pafos last Thursday.
Celje are one of only two ever-presents in the Slovenian top-flight since its formation in 1991 and have won the title twice, including in 2023/24. The league is currently on its winter break at the midway point in the campaign, with Celje sitting fourth in the table – eight points behind leaders Olimpija Ljubljana. This is the first season that they progressed past the qualifying rounds of European competition.
Ex-Liverpool winger Albert Riera is in his second spell as Celje manager, while perhaps the most recognisable name in the squad is former Newcastle United and Sheffield Wednesday winger Rolando Aarons – although he has not featured since the end of August. Defender Zan Karnicnik and midfielder Svit Seslar were both by called up by Slovenia for last month’s UEFA Nations League matches, with the latter making his debut against Norway.
TNS reacted to last week’s defeat to Panathinaikos with a 4-1 home win over Colwyn Bay in the JD Welsh Cup on Sunday. Aramide Oteh scored twice at Park Hall, but he is not eligible to feature in the UEFA Conference League as he was signed after the squad submission deadline.
Ash Baker’s early injury against Panathinaikos is likely to rule him out, but Josh Daniels, Harrison McGahey, Josh Pask, Danny Davies, Danny Redmond, Dan Williams and Rory Holden were all rested against Colwyn Bay so should return to play in Slovenia.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” Craig Harrison said. “Everybody at the football club would have ripped your arm off if you’d have said that Matchday 6 we would still have a chance of going through. That’s a credit to the players and staff, the amount of hard work that goes in. Hopefully we can get a result.”
Watch Celje v The New Saints live on TNT Sports 3 from 7:30pm on Thursday evening, with kick-off at 8pm.
