Club Brugge will face either Norway’s Brann or Austria’s RB Salzburg in the third preliminary round of the Champions League.
The draw, held on Monday at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, mapped out the journey for the Belgian vice-champions, fresh from their Supercup victory.
The first leg is scheduled for Tuesday, 5 August or Wednesday, 6 August, and the return match will take place on Tuesday, 12 August at Jan Breydel Stadium. Specific kick-off times will be confirmed by 25 July. Before that, Brann and Salzburg will play each other on Wednesday in Norway and on 30 July in Austria.
SK Brann currently occupies third place in the Norwegian Championship with 30 points from 16 matches. Last season, the club finished as runners-up behind champion Bodo/Glimt. Denzel De Roeve, trained in Brugge, joined Brann’s squad in March.
RB Salzburg has been beaten to the Austrian title by Sturm Graz for the 2024-2025 season and recently competed in the Club World Cup. Yorbe Vertessen, who played for Union Saint-Gilloise at the start of 2023, signed with RB Salzburg in February 2025.
As the Belgian vice-champion, Club Brugge enters the qualification path following the first two rounds (with the second round still to be played). In the ‘League Path,’ for teams that are not national champions, the Belgian Supercup winner is part of eight clubs (three of which will be decided after the second round) competing for two spots in the Champions League group stage for the 2025-2026 season.
If Brugge triumph over Brann or Salzburg, they advance to the play-offs, the final qualification round before entering the group stage. They will then face one of the three other winners from the third preliminary round.
A victory at this stage would secure the Blauw en Zwart a place in the Champions League alongside Union Saint-Gilloise, the Belgian champion. Union is among the 29 clubs already qualified, to be joined by seven others from the play-offs (two from the ‘League Path,’ five from the ‘Champions Path’).
If defeated, either in the third preliminary round or play-offs, Brugge will drop into the Europa League group stage.
