Champions League: Sp. Braga will face Baca Topola

Sp. Braga will face Paca Topola of Serbia in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.

The draw took place on Monday morning in Nyon. Arsenalista will play the first leg at home on August 8 or 9, and the second leg in Serbia on August 15.

Baca Topola is an unknown club in the football elite, and this is the first time that it has participated in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League.

Known internally as TSC (the initials Topolyai Sport Club), it hails from Backa Topola, specifically, and is the second oldest team in the Serbian league at this time, having been founded in 1912, when Backa Topola belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It should be noted, in this regard, that the club competed in the Hungarian Second League, in the years leading up to the Second World War. With the end of the Great War, Baca Topola was returned to the Yugoslav League and enjoyed a long career in the lower divisions.

Less than ten years ago, by the way, territorial divisions in Baka were still contested. In 2015 it was promoted to the Serbian Second League and in 2020 it was promoted to the First Division. Since then, he’s finished fourth in his rookie year and finished second last season.

A new stadium opened in 2021 with a capacity of 4,500 people and the club that formed Dusan Tadic was one of the best Serbian players in the last decade. He is from the city of Baka Topola and played for the local club until he was 14 years old.

If they beat that opponent, Artur Jorge’s team must still go through the playoffs to enter the Champions Group Stage.