Hajduk travel to face Gibraltar's Lincoln Red Imps on Thursday in the third round of the Conference League. The match will be played at the Europa Point stadium, one of the smallest venues Hajduk have ever played at in European competition, with a capacity of 2,100 spectators.
The stadium is located at the southernmost point of Gibraltar, right by the sea and immediately below the walls of Gibraltar, while the Rock of Gibraltar, standing 426 metres high, rises directly above it. From the stadium, there is a view towards North Africa, and the complex, which offers views of the Rock, a lighthouse and the walls, is also used for other sports.
It is a multi-purpose building that serves as the home of the Gibraltar rugby union team, and it hosts home matches for football, rugby and cricket clubs. The stadium is named Europa Sports Park for matches under the UEFA banner, has an unusual shape that is not exclusively rectangular but oval in one section, and the complex also hosts darts, squash and futsal, as well as gymnastics competitions.
Gibraltar has been a UEFA member since 2013, and the Europa Point stadium is used for matches involving the Gibraltar national team in the Nations League and for clubs in Europe. UEFA granted Gibraltar an exemption due to the renovation of Victoria Stadium, the largest football venue in Gibraltar, which is ultimately expected to accommodate around 8,000 spectators.
Hajduk have previously played on unusual pitches. During the coronavirus pandemic, they faced Renova from North Macedonia, and in 2020 the match was played at the "Petar Miloševski" Training Centre stadium without spectators. In 1975, Hajduk won 5:0 against Malta's Floriana in the first round of the then Cup of Champions, and at the time, the Whites' manager Tomislav Ivić told Slobodna Dalmacija: "In such heat and on such a pitch, it was almost impossible to play better football".
On Thursday, Hajduk will face an artificial turf pitch, which is extremely slow. Last year, before their match against Rijeka (1:1) in the same competition, the home side watered the pitch. Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, with an area of 6.8 square kilometres and a population of around 34,000. The southernmost point of continental Europe is the cape and city of Tarifa in Spain, where Europe and Africa are separated by just 14 kilometres, and on the African side lies Ceuta, a Spanish territory on the African continent. The border with Spain is a 20 to 30-minute leisurely walk from the stadium.
