Midtjylland vs Slovan Bratislava facts

Midtjylland and Slovan Bratislava are aiming to add to their limited UEFA Champions League experience as they meet in Denmark for the first leg of their play-off tie.

While the home side's sole group appearance came four years ago, Slovan have never made it as far as the competition proper – although they have been regular participants in qualifying.

Midtjylland have won three of their four games to date in the 2024/25 Champions League while Slovan have played six matches, recording four victories.

This is the first meeting between the clubs. The return is in Bratislava on 28 August.

Form guide

Midtjylland

This is Midtjylland's first game against a team from Slovakia.

The Danish side's sole appearance in the Champions League group stage came in 2020/21, when they collected two points from six games to finish fourth in a section behind Liverpool, Atalanta and Ajax.

They came through three qualifying rounds to reach that group stage, beating Slavia Praha 4-1 on aggregate in the play-offs (0-0 a, 4-1 h) – their sole previous appearance at this stage of the competition.

In addition, the Danish side have featured in six UEFA Europa League qualifying play-offs (W1 L5) and one UEFA Europa Conference League, losing to Legia Warszawa in 2023/24 (3-3 h, 1-1 a aet, 6-7 pens).

Midtjylland had beaten Progrès Niederkorn in the second qualifying round of last season's Europa Conference League (3-2 aggregate) and Omonoia in the third (5-2 aggregate).

Ulvene started this season's campaign in the Champions League second qualifying round, beating Santa Coloma of Andorra 4-0 on aggregate (3-0 a, 1-0 h) before defeating Hungary's Ferencváros (2-0 h, 1-1 a) in the third qualifying round.

The Danish side are unbeaten in five home European games, winning four; a 4-0 loss by Sporting CP in the 2022/23 Europa League knockout play-offs is their only reverse in their last nine home matches (W6 D2).

Midtjylland claimed their fourth Danish league title in 2023/24, all in the last ten seasons.

Slovan Bratislava

Record vs Danish clubs: W2 D2 L4 F8 A12
Away record vs Danish clubs: W0 D2 L2

Slovan's last visit to Denmark ended in a 2-0 defeat at Copenhagen on Matchday 6 of the 2021/22 Europa Conference League, a result that ended their hopes of further progress.

That made it four successive defeats against Danish clubs for Slovan, who were unbeaten in their first four matches (W2 D2). Aside from losing 3-1 at home to Copenhagen in the reverse fixture in 2021, they also went down home (0-1) and away (1-2) against Lyngby in the 2017/18 Europa League second qualifying round; those four matches are their only contests against a Danish team since 1994.

Slovan have never featured in the Champions League proper. Indeed, only three Slovakian clubs have appeared in the group stage – Košice (1997/98), Petržalka (2005/06) and Žilina (2010/11).

Although Slovan have never made it to the competition proper, this is their 12th appearance in Champions League qualifying – and a sixth in succession.

Their sole previous Champions League play-off ended in defeat against BATE Borisov in 2014/15 (1-1 h, 0-3 a).

In 2023/24, the Bratislava side came through two rounds before losing to Maccabi Haifa in the third qualifying round (2-5 aggregate) to move into the Europa League qualifying play-offs, where they lost 7-4 on aggregate against Aris Limassol. That sent them into the Europa Conference League group stage, where they finished second in their section behind LOSC Lille, eventually losing to Sturm Graz in the knockout round play-offs (1-4 a, 0-1 h).

Slovan have come through three qualifying rounds to reach these play-offs, beating Struga of North Macedonia in the first (4-2 h, 2-1 a), Slovenian side Celje in the second (1-1 a, 5-0 h) and APOEL of Cyprus in the third (2-0 h, 0-0 a).

Slovan lost four of their eight away European matches in 2023/24, winning the others; they are unbeaten in their three away games in qualifying this season (W1 D2).

The Sky Blues claimed their 30th league title overall in 2023/24, finishing 15 points clear in the Slovakian top flight.

Links and trivia

Slovan midfielder Alen Mustafić made ten league appearances for Danish side OB between January 2023 and January 2024.