THE New Saints will be urged to learn lessons of European campaigns from years gone by as they look to get back on track with a trip to Iceland this week.

The Saints will face Icelandic champions Víkingur Reykjavík on Thursday in the UEFA Conference League second qualifying round after their Champions League return turned sour against Linfield in Belfast.

Anthony Limbrick's men were seconds from booking a second qualifying round clash with FK Bodo/Glimt, vanquisher of Jose Mourinho's Roma in 2021/22, but conceded a 94th leveller and went on to lose the tie in extra-time.

Now they face a side that were only just edged out by Swedish side Malmo across both legs, and Limbrick wants his players to learn their lessons fast if they are to progress.

"It's trying to be positive and learn the lessons of that again, like last year when we were in Europe and got knocked out," Limbrick told TNS TV.

"It's a quick turnaround, we don't have to feel sorry for ourselves and we needed to get back onto the training pitch and work out a plan.

"We need to work on getting through this round.

"We hadn't thought about our next opponents whether it was winning or losing this tie.

"We hadn't – the hard work started on that immediately after we got back.

"But we've got another opportunity which is good – it;s going to be a long road, a long pathway but we've been on that pathway before and we'll make sure we'll be right back on it."

Saints lost the chance to book a spot in the UEFA Conference League play-off round by not progressing further in the UCL and now face three more rounds to qualify for the group stages for the first time.

TNS's opponents are managed by Arnar Gunnlaugsson – who will be a familiar name to fans of Bolton Wanderers and Leicester City, where he featured as a forward – and Víkingur Reykjavík play their games at Víkingsvöllur.

As with The New Saints, the Icelandic champions find themselves in the Europa Conference League second qualifying round after a first round defeat in the Champions League qualifying first round.

In the case of the Vikes, they narrowly exited the competition at the hands of Malmö FF, the current champions of Sweden.

The 6-5 aggregate was made up of a 3-3 draw in Iceland and a 3-2 defeat on the road in Scandinavia.

The kick-off this week is 7.30pm Iceland time, which is behind the UK by one hour local time meaning, meaning kick-off will be 8.30pm in the UK.

The officials are from Slovakia and are Peter Kralović (referee), Milan Štrbo and Dušan Štofik (assistant referees). The fourth official will be Peter Ziemba.

There will be a shorter than normal turnaround for the second leg, which will be at Park Hall on Tuesday, July 26.