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Harambee Stars midfielder learns path to maiden UEFA Champions League qualification
Reading Time: 2min | Wed. 17.06.26. | 16:54
This will be his second stab at making the elite competition, having stumbled in the first round with former side Saburtalo Tbilisi
Harambee Stars midfielder Alwyn Tera and his Armenian club, Ararat Armenia, have learnt the first opponents they will face in their race to qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stages.
This is the first time the club will gracing the grand stage.
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Ararat, who secured their third Armenian League title late last month, have been paired up against Latvia’s Riga FC, in the first-round of the 2025-2026 UEFA Champions League Qualifiers, set for 21/22 July and 28/29 July.
The Armenian champions were on Tuesday, 16 June part of 28 teams from lower-ranked countries that learnt of their fate in Europe’s hightest competition, following a draw ceremony in Nyon, Switzerland.
As per the draw procedure, Ararat will play the first-leg of that first round ties at home, before travelling away on the aforementioned dates, in search of a ticket to the second round, which will be decided on the aggregate scoreline across the two legs.
This will be the second time Ararat will be taking part in this stage since the 2020–21, season when they were eliminated in the first qualifying round by Cypriot side Omonia after extra-time.
Should Tera’s side go one better this season, a tie against the winner of another first-round match-up between Malta’s Floriana FC and Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers FC awaits them in the second-round of qualifiers.
The route, which was confirmed in another draw ceremony in Nyon on Thursday, 17 June, gives Ararat a favorable path to the third and final qualification round, as it means they have avoided all big hitters present in the second-round.
Among the giants they have evaded are :Turkey’s Fenerbache, Serbia’s Red Star Belgradde, Danish champions Aarhus, Polish champions and temporary home to Kenya’s Timothy Ouma - Lech Poznan, and Scottish Premiership runners-up Hearts.
Should Ararat reach the second round, then they will host the first-leg on either 21/22 July, with the away return leg on 28/29 July.
In the third round, the five exempt clubs and nine winners advancing from the second qualifying round play in two legs scheduled for August 4/5 and August 11 2026.
Tera will be seeking to surmount a familiar challenge after playing in the first round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers in 2019 with former Georgian side FC Saburtalo Tbilisi (now Iberia 1999), but could not hack it through to the main competition, after losing in a two-legged quarterfinal to Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb.