BALA Town are all set to take on Swedish giants AIK Fotboll in the first leg of their Uefa Europa League first qualifying round match in Stockholm tonight (Thursday).

The Lakesiders were beaten 3-0 in their warm-up match against Northern Ireland champions Crusaders on Airbus UK Broughton’s 3G pitch last weekend, but Colin Caton’s men are in good spirits ahead of their match at the Tele2 Arena.

Runners-up in the Welsh Premier League last season, the Lakesiders will be keen to keep the tie alive for the second at Rhyl’s Corbett Sports Stadium next week.

Caton, however, will be under no illusions that their third venture in Europe could well prove to be their toughest yet."It's going to be a really difficult tie this one," said the Bala manager."I rate these [AIK] as the best opposition we've played in Europe so far. The odds are really stacked against us, but we won't be phased by anything."Swedish League champions in 2009, AIK are third in the all-time Allsvenskan Swedish table, and the club holds the record for being the Swedish club that has had the most seasons in the top flight.

AIK reached the quarter-finals of the 1996–97 Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup and qualified for the 1999–2000 Champions League group stage. In 2012 they reached the Europa League group stage, and even held Manchester United to a 1-1 draw.

Last season, AIK finished third in the Swedish Allsvenskan League, and unlike the Lakesiders, they have the benefit of already being well into their league season.

Managed by Rikard Norling since May 2016, who is in his third spell in a coaching capacity at the club, AIK are 12 matches into their domestic campaign, having notched six wins, four draws and two defeats - placing them fourth in the league, within five points of leaders Malmo.

Amongst their key players are defender Per Karlsson, who has been at the club since 2003 and was capped by Sweden at international level. Fellow defender Nils-Eric Johansson has also appeared for Leicester City, Bayern Munich and Blackburn Rovers, with three Swedish caps.

Stefan Ishizaki is in his second spell and has 295 games to his name and has scored 66 goals, so could be a threat in midfield.

Bala, however, can take heart from the fact that Welsh Premier club Carmarthen Town faced the Swedish outfit in 2001/02, and held them to a goalless draw at Richmond Park, before losing 3-0 a week later.

It is the latest chapter in a remarkable story for Bala Town, who were only promoted into the second tier of Welsh football, the Cymru Alliance, in 2004.

Four seasons later the Lakesiders sealed promotion to the Welsh Premier, and qualified to for Europe for the first time in their history in 2013 as play-off winners.

The Lakesiders were drawn against Estonian outfit Levadia Tallinn of Estonia, and after winning the home leg 1-0, they bowed out of the competition when going down 3-1 in the reverse fixture in Tallinn.

Then, in 2015, the Lakesiders finished as runners-up to The New Saints in the Welsh Premier League, thus qualifying again for the Europa League competition.

They only narrowly missed out on playing Turkish giants Trabzonspor in the second qualifying round, when losing on 4-3 on aggregate to Luxembourg side FC Differdange 03, after losing the away leg 3-1.

Bala were winning the home leg 2-0, and looked set to progress by virtue of their away goal, until they crucially conceded an injury time goal that sent them out.

This year’s draw, however, promises to be the toughest test yet for Bala, against a club that had an average home attendance of over 21,000 last season - the highest in Sweden - and which is widely regarded as one of the biggest clubs in the country.

They play at the 50,000 seater Friends Arena, in the municipality of Stockholm - which has been selected to host the Europa League Final next season, and is also home to the Swedish national team.

Their stadium’s capacity is over 25 times the population of Bala - but Thursday’s match will be played at the Tele2 Arena, which is used mostly for music concerts, as well as hosting all the home matches of Allsvenskan FC, and some AIK fixtures.

The Arena has a capacity 33,000 for football matches, depending on the number of people standing - but on Monday pop star Rihanna is using the venue for a concert of her World Tour!

The home leg will be played at Rhyl on Thursday, 7 July, with a 6.30pm kick-off, and for home and neutral supporters, tickets will be available to buy at the Rhyl Club Shop on the day of the match only.

The winners of the tie will go on to meet FC Pyunik (Armenia) or Europa FC (Gibraltar) in the second qualifying round.