BATE are familiar to our supporters: We played them back in 2015 in the Champions League Q3 qualifier. The Belarusian side had won their league title twice up until 2006. They have gone on to completely dominate their domestic league since then with 14 first place finishes. That also makes them the record holders. However, it is also somewhat surprising that they have only managed to lift the domestic cup three times, while winning the Super cup on 7 occasions. The Belarusian champions will provide stiff opposition to Marko Nikolic' side over the two group games. The first of which takes place in Budapest at the Groupama Arena on Thursday 20th September. The away fixture will be in Belarus on the 29th November.

Their dominance has also been confirmed in Europe. They have qualified for a European group stage in either competition 9 times since 2008. BATE have even qualified through those group stage games twice. There have been 5 Champions’ League group stages for them. Season 2017-18 saw them make it into Group “H” and 5 points were collected against sides from the group that included Crvena Zvezda, Arsenal and Köln, even though in the end they finished bottom. 

They first came up against Hungarian opponents in 2012. They knocked out DVSC in the Champions League Q3 stage 3-1, which they repeated at the same stage the following season. That saw them score the winning goal to go through in the 94th minute. 2015 brought them again with Hungarian opponents but this time Vidi. The teams shared a 1-1 draw at the Sostoi, before a 1-0 second leg defeat in Belarus. 

BATE have had a similar run to Vidi over the summer in European competition. They entered at the Q2 stage and a 0-0 home leg draw was followed up by a 2-1 away win against HJK Helsinki. Then again away from home against Qarabagh of Azerbaijan, they won 1-0 away and drew the home leg 1-1. They did not manage to make it through to the Champions’ League group stage with PSV proving too strong in the play-offs and a 6-2 aggregate defeat. 

The BATE squad is valued at 17 million euros according to transfermarkt.de, with regional top goalscorer being 25 times capped Belarus international Gordeyukh, who is valued at 2.2 million. The star of the squad is 37 year old former Arsenal and Barcelona midfielder Aleksandr Hleb, who most recently managed to find the back of the net against PSV.