Motherwell’s European adventure has hit a significant speed bump. The Scottish Premiership side finds itself trailing by two goals after the first leg of their UEFA Conference League tie against SC Freiburg, setting up a daunting second leg at Fir Park.
The road to this point
Motherwell didn’t stumble into this stage of the Conference League. Their most notable result came against HJK Helsinki, where Motherwell secured a 2-0 victory in the second leg to advance 3-1 on aggregate. That result against the Finnish side demonstrated that Motherwell could compete against established European opposition.
Getting to the league phase would represent a historic achievement for the club. The league phase functions essentially as the group stage of the competition, and reaching it would mark Motherwell’s nearest opportunity to secure their inaugural appearance at that level.
The Bundesliga gap
