Stoke draw Swiss side FC Thun in Europa Play-off

Stoke have been drawn against FC Thun of Switzerland in the next round of the Europa League after last night’s brilliant win in Split.

The Potters will travel to Thun for the first leg on Thursday 18th August, before hosting the Swiss a week later on Thursday 25th August.

The winner of the tie will secure their place in the Europa League group stages.

Tony Pulis told stokecityfc.com :

‘I’m obviously pleased with the draw, in respect to having the second leg at the Britannia Stadium.

‘It’s good for us to travel away first so we can get them back to our place and have the full backing of the Britannia Stadium; which I feel is crucial.

He added: ‘As with a lot of teams in the competition, we don’t know much about them but I am sure they will say the same about us.

‘No game in Europe is easy, so we will make sure we are fully prepared for this tie.’

So, who are FC Thun?

Well, in the previous round they beat the much-fancied Palermo and over the last 6 years or so they’ve beaten the likes of Dynamo Kiev whilst more than competing against top European outfits such as Arsenal, Ajax and FC Hamburg.

They also finished 5th in the Swiss League last year.

It will be by no means easy(we never do it easy lets face it), but I firmly believe that if we play as we did against Hajduk Split – we’ll cause them plenty of problems and whilst it’s a potential banana skin, it’s one we should overcome.