Getafe will walk into Thursday evening as a first-time team in the Conference League, and the occasion carries the kind of novelty they have not had in European football for years. Their opening match is against Universitatea Craiova, a club that already knows this competition well enough to treat it as routine, not debut night.
That is why the fixture is being watched now. Getafe, who finished seventh in Spain's top flight last term and edged Partizan 4-3 on aggregate in the playoff round, have not played in Europe since the 2019-20 campaign, when they reached the last-16 of the Europa League and lost to Inter Milan. Craiova, by contrast, will play their 23rd Conference League match on Thursday, carrying a record of nine wins, five draws and eight defeats from their first 22 games in the competition.
Assad Al-Hamlawi gives Craiova a forward edge that matters in a game like this. He has scored six times in 14 appearances this season, and he arrives with the team in strong form. Craiova have won each of their last five matches in all competitions, beat Csikszereda M. Ciuc 1-0 in the league on Sunday and have not lost in any competition since the end of August.
Getafe, though, are not turning up cold. They lost 3-0 to Barcelona in Spain's top flight before the European match and sit 14th in the La Liga table with two wins, two draws and four defeats from eight league matches this term. That leaves their European return carrying a sharper edge: a debut on one side, a team with momentum on the other, and a match that will tell whether Getafe's first Conference League night is a step forward or a hard lesson.
The injury list adds another layer to that balance. Pavlo Isenko and Monday Etim will miss the game for Craiova, while Christantus Uche and Juanmi are out for Getafe. If the visitors can survive the home side's rhythm and score early, the story changes fast; if they cannot, the first chapter of their Conference League campaign may be defined by how quickly Craiova force them to adapt.
