Rayo Vallecano has won an European match for the first time in 25 years (not counting qualifiers last summer). The club of a working class neighbourhood in the south of Madrid, Rayo frequently moves between first and second division in Spain, but last season they enjoyed one of their best seasons in recent years and finished eighth in LaLiga, granting them access to UEFA Conference League.
Fans invaded the pitch the day that Rayo Vallecano confirmed their entrance to UEFA Conference League qualifiers last May, a qualification they finally sealed last August in a 4-0 thrashing to Belarusian club Neman.
Today, on the first day of UEFA Conference League league phase, Rayo Vallecano has delighted fans with a comfortable victory against KF Shkëndija, a club from Tetovo, North Macedonia. Rayo had full control of the match, with only 1 shot from the Macedonian squad vs. 20 shots from the local team. Unai López and Fran Pérez netted within a three minute span in the first half.
First UEFA match (and victory) since 2000
The victory has been specially meaningful for Rayo, a humble club that had only played in an European competition once before: during the 2000/01 campaign of the UEFA Cup. That year, they managed to reach the quarter-finals, losing to Alavés, another Spanish club. Alavés eventually reached the final, losing to Liverpool in what we know call the Europa League.
Upcoming trips for the Vallecano players will be Sweden (against BK Häcken), Slovakia (Slovan Bratislava), and Poland (Jagiellonia Białystok), and they will welcome Drita from Kosovo and another Polish club, Lech Poznań.