Inside Leftthe independent Scottish football blog

Both FALKIRK and MOTHERWELL face surprisingly tricky fixtures this evening as they hope to progress to the next round of the Europa League tonight.

Falkirk travel to the Liechtenstein capital Vaduz to take on FC VADUZ. The Bairns are leading the tie 1-0 and basically just need to hold on to that lead to progress. Manager Eddie May has correctly predicted that Vaduz will be out to attack but has vowed not to park the bus on the goal line and is looking to make a real go of it. That Vaduz can score was evidenced by the 13-1 spanking they handed to FC HAAG the week before the first fixture, but realistically you’d be looking for Falkirk to come away with a result here.

No pressure or anything, but to lose to a side from Liechtenstein after being ahead 1-0 from the first leg will surely go down as one of the lowest points in Scottish football history. Yup, no pressure.

We’re fully expecting Falkirk to hang on to their lead and probably even win tonight. Falkirk’s reward for a victory? A home tie against Czech side FC SLOVAN LIBEREC, one of the more successful and richer clubs in Czech League and who managed to reach the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Cup back in 2002 as well as the semi-final and final of the Intertoto Cup in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Easy.

You can read a proper match preview here, courtesy of the Falkirk FC site.

The other contender for European glory or centuries of shame are MOTHERWELL. They’re at home (inasmuch as you can call the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie home) against Albanian side FLAMURTARI. Gaffer Jim Gannon needs to do a repeat of the performance against Welsh side Llanelli, where The Steelmen overturned a 1-0 deficit to record a splendid 3-1 aggregate victory. Flamurtari coach Eqerem Memushi, no doubt relieved to have been allowed to leave the country with his squad to even play this fixture, has already started the psychological warfare by saying that, basically, Motherwell are shit and he fully expects his side to win again. I’m paraphrasing perhaps, but that’s what it amounts to.

The great big dangling carrot that should push Motherwell to victory is that should when they beat Flamurtari they’ll face another East European side: Steaua Bucharest (or Ujpest, depending on the outcome of that game).  Read more about the game and Motherwell team news via the Motherwell website.