Partizan vs UNA Strassen — four up, ten men, and a night for the kids
Preview · UEFA Conference League · Second qualifying round, second leg · 30 July 2026
Partizan travel to Luxembourg with a 4-0 lead and a squad list that tells you exactly how they see this: 24 players, several of them teenagers from the academy. UNA Strassen need four goals against a Serbian giant to force extra time, and they must do it without the defender sent off in Belgrade. The tie is over in every meaningful sense. What remains is a question of professionalism, minutes and whether the Luxembourgers can salvage a night to remember.
The matchup
The first leg at the Partizan Stadium was one-way traffic in front of a crowd of 10,637. Erik Kojzek opened the scoring inside five minutes, Ibrahim Zubairu struck twice either side of the hour, and Ognjen Ugrešić finished it off late. The contest, such as it was, ended six minutes into the second half when Edis Agović was shown a straight red card for violent conduct, leaving Strassen to play out 40 minutes a man short. Agović is suspended here, which removes a first-choice defender from a side that already needed everything to go right.
The return is not at Strassen’s own modest municipal ground but at the national stadium in Kockelscheuer, on the edge of Luxembourg City — the sort of upgrade that makes a European night feel like an occasion regardless of the aggregate.
Form & context
Partizan’s schedule is the story on their side. Saša Ilić has spoken openly about rotating, saying his squad has been playing every three days since the season began and that young players will get minutes, from the start or off the bench. Captain Milan Vukotić stayed in Belgrade after taking a blow to the back in the domestic match against Mačva, and the Brazilian Žé remained behind too with a swollen knee. Krsto Ljubanović is ineligible for this squad and Mario Jurčević has been dealing with an Achilles problem. Even so, Ilić has publicly refused the word “relaxation”, and a league fixture against IMT on 2 August is already in his diary.
UNA Strassen, for their part, are a well-run Luxembourg club having the biggest week in their history, and they are missing Lukas Sever with a shin injury and Aniss El Hriti with a lateral knee ligament problem. Their home record domestically has been solid, and their realistic ambition is a scoreline they can be proud of rather than a comeback nobody expects.
The deciding factor
Partizan’s attitude, and nothing else. A heavily rotated side with academy players in it can be sloppy, and Strassen will press the moment they sense hesitation. But four goals is four goals, and Partizan’s second string still carries more individual quality than anything in the BGL Ligue. If Kojzek and Zubairu start, the tie stays comfortable; if they don’t, expect a scrappier, lower-tempo evening.
The call
Partizan to go through, high confidence on the tie itself. On the 90 minutes, a low-confidence lean towards the visitors winning again — rotation and a settled aggregate can flatten a performance, and Strassen at home with nothing to lose is a genuine, if small, complicating factor.
