Super Eagles prospect Gift Orban and Ghana defender Baba Rahman are back in action ahead of the UEFA Europa Conference League fixtures for the 2023/24 season.
Both West Africans are going to be in action for their clubs in the second qualifying round of the tournament with hopes of progressing to the finals which kick off in September 2023.
Orban will be lining up for KAA Gent against MŠK Žilina of Slovakia while Rahman will be in action with PAOK against Beitar Jerusalem.
Read on for match previews of both games and where to watch them.
KAA Gent – MŠK Žilina: Orban and co seek to begin 2023/24 season on a high
KAA Gent made it all the way to the quarter-finals of the 2022/23 edition of the Conference League on the back of goals scored by Gift Orban.
The Super Eagles prospect joined the Belgian Jupiler Pro League side in January 2023 and ended the season as the club’s second-top scorer in all competitions, including the Conference League.
Now that he is in his first full season at the club – albeit with an unstable future thanks to all the transfer news surrounding him – he will be working to make his mark at the Chillax Arena and on travelling fans who support the team away from home.
Žilina will be visiting the Chillax Arena on Thursday in one of the top Conference League fixtures to watch out for. The match will be played at 7 PM WAT and will be officiated by Referee Visar Kastrati from Kosovo. The assistants Granit Hyseni and Lumturije Muhadri, as well as the fourth official Ilir Mehmeti, are also from Kosovo.
Onze tegenstander in de 2e voorronde van @europacnfleague wordt @mskzilina1908 uit Slovakije 🇸🇰
De thuismatch wordt gespeeld op donderdag 27/07 om 20u. #kaagent #UECL pic.twitter.com/juvLgfcfkm
— KAA Gent (@KAAGent) July 20, 2023
Gent will be hoping to seal a win with a good margin against their visitors and Orban will be looking to carry over his brilliant pre-season form into the Buffalos’ first official game of the 2023/24 season. Hein van Haezebrouck will also be seeing this as a means to evaluate his team ahead of their Belgian League opener on July 30.
The game will be broadcast on streaming platforms like Paramount+ which is available in Nigeria and Ghana via the Amazon Prime Video service.
PAOK – Beitar Jerusalem: Baba Rahman set for official debut for new club
Baba Rahman joined PAOK in Greece at the end of the 2022/23 season from Chelsea, where he spent with seasons.
He made only 15 league appearances for the Premier League side, spending all his time away on loan spells in Germany, France, Spain and in the lower tiers of English football. PAOK signed him on a permanent deal after being impressed with his loan spell back in 2021.
Now, the 29-year-old has a home and he will be looking to impress the fans at the 28,700-seater Toumba Stadium where they will host Israeli side Beitar Jerusalem at 6:30 PM WAT.
PAOK will be going into the game on the back of a few pre-season games which were not too encouraging. Pre-season games are quite different from actual games so it will be disingenuous to conclude on the game against Beitar before it happens.
Baba Rahman was part of some of their pre-season preparations but is unlikely to start in his first official game as the coach will look to ease him into it.
⌚️👀🏟️🦅#PAOKBEI #UECL #FightBack pic.twitter.com/LF8VyjZnnY
— PAOK FC (@PAOK_FC) July 26, 2023
Meanwhile, Beitar are winless in their last five European qualification games so Baba Rahman and his new team can count on this negative history to work in their favour.
The referee for the match is Mykola Balakin and he will be assisted by Oleksandr Korniyko and Dmytro Zaporozhenko, while the fourth official will be Dmytro Kryvushkin. They are all from Ukraine.
The game will be broadcast on streaming platforms like Paramount+ which is available in Nigeria and Ghana via the Amazon Prime Video service.
This article was most recently revised and updated 2 months ago
