FC Sheriff Tiraspol

From 2001–02 to 2008–09, the club tried to reach the group stage in the UEFA Champions League every year, but failed in the second qualifying round every time. Its European fortunes improved after 2009. Sheriff has appeared in three UEFA Europa League group stages (2009–10, 2010–11, 2013–14) with decent results, although they didn't manage to qualify to the knock-out stage. In 2017, they qualified to the group stage for the fourth time, after beating favorites Legia Warsaw on away goals in the play-off round.

In the 2009–10 season, Sheriff finally reached the third qualifying round when they defeated Inter Turku. In the next round, Sheriff defeated Slavia Prague 1–1 on aggregate, progressing via the away goal rule due to Nadson's 94th-minute strike in the second leg. They were then eliminated from the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League by Greek club Olympiacos in the qualifying play-off for a spot in the group stage. Sheriff lost 2–0 in the first leg at home, and 1–0 in the second leg away.

However, by virtue of losing in the play-off round, Sheriff qualified for the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League group stage, where they were drawn into Group H alongside Fenerbahçe, Twente and Steaua București. On 17 September 2009, their first Europa League match, Sheriff drew 0–0 away against Steaua.[9] On 1 October, Sheriff's first Europa League home match, the club lost 1–0 to Fenerbahçe.[9] On 22 October, Sheriff produced a stunning 2–0 home victory over Twente, ending Twente's 17-match unbeaten run.[9] 2 December, Sheriff drew 1–1 at home with Steaua.[9] Sheriff failed to progress past the group stage after finishing third in Group H with five points, ahead of Steaua.

In the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League,[10] on 14–20 July 2010, Sheriff defeated Dinamo Tirana in the second qualifying round (3–1, 0–1). Then, on 4 August, the club defeated Dinamo Zagreb on penalties (6–5) after identical 1–1 draws at home and away, thereby reaching the play-off round.[10] On 18–24 August, in the play-off round against Basel, Sheriff lost 1–0 in Switzerland before losing 3–0 at home.[10]

Dropping to the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League after their play-off defeat to Basel,[11] Sheriff was drawn into Group E alongside Dynamo Kyiv, AZ and BATE Borisov. After losing their first match 2–1 away against AZ on 15 September 2010, on 30 September, Sheriff defeated Dynamo Kyiv 2–0 at home. After losing two-straight matches against BATE – 0–1 at home and 3–1 away on 21 October and 4 November respectively – on 2 December, Sheriff drew 1–1 with AZ at home,[11] then on 15 December, Sheriff drew 0–0 against Dynamo Kyiv away in Kyiv.[11] Accumulating five points, Sheriff failed to progress past the group stage after finishing last in Group E.

In the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, Sheriff played in a group with Tottenham Hotspur, Anzhi Makhachkala and Tromsø, in which they finished third.

In the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, Sheriff played in a group with Lokomotiv Moscow, Copenhagen, Fastav Zlín, in which they finished third once more.

In the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, Sheriff became the first Moldovan team to qualify for the group stages of the competition after a 3–0 aggregate win over Dinamo Zagreb.[12] They were drawn into Group D to face Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk.[13] On 15 September, Sheriff won their opening group game, 2–0 against Shakhtar Donetsk,[14] before following it up with an upset 2–1 away victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu on 28 September 2021, with Sébastien Thill scoring the winning goal in the 89th minute.[15] Despite losing their next three games against Inter Milan and Real Madrid, they secured qualification for the preliminary knockout round of the Europa League on 24 November 2021 when Shakhtar Donetsk lost to Inter Milan. They ended their campaign with a 1–1 away draw with Shakhtar Donetsk, which meant they ended up with a very respectable 7 points from their 6 games.

Sheriff had serious squad problems before the start of the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds. The departure of important players such as Cristiano da Silva Leite, Frank Castañeda, Danilo Arboleda, Dimitris Kolovos and Fernando Peixoto Costanza caused serious problems in the squad. Sheriff replaced all the departures with new players like Regi Lushkja, Gaby Kiki, Renan Guedes and Patrick Kpozo. However, the rules of the Moldovan championship allow teams to announce their new players from 23 February. Since the deadline for registration in the Europa League was February 2, coach Yuriy Vernydub was obliged to include players who had not played much in the starting line-up, such as Stjepan Radeljić, Stefanos Evangelou and Charles Petro.

They are the first ever Moldovan side to play in the knockout stages of a European competition, and were drawn against S.C. Braga of Portugal. They won 2–0 in the initial home leg - with the goalscorers being Sébastien Thill and Adama Traoré in a game where Sheriff put in a solid performance despite having a vastly different squad to the one that stunned Real Madrid. Finally, the European campaign ended with a 2-0 defeat and a dramatic penalty shootout that ended 3-2 for Braga.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 8 DF  MDA Alexandr Belousov (on loan to Sfîntul Gheorghe) 32 DF  MDA Valeriu Gaiu (on loan to Bălți)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  COL Hansel Zapata (on loan to Slaven Belupo)

As of match played 24 February 2022

Legend: GF = Goals For. GA = Goals Against. GD = Goal Difference.

As of 28 September 2021, Sheriff Tiraspol is ranked 58th in the UEFA club coefficient rankings, up from 108th the previous season.

Rank	Team	Points
56	1899 Hoffenheim	23.000
57	Malmö FF	22.500
58	Sheriff Tiraspol	21.500
59	Rennes	21.500
60	Borussia Mönchengladbach	21.000

As of 26 August 2021. Source

Name	Nat.	From	To	P	W	D	L	GS	GA	%W	Honours	Notes
Veaceslav Rusnac	Moldova	12 July 2013	15 August 2014	41	32	4	5	113	25	078.05	2013–14 Divizia Națională
Zoran Zekić	Croatia	15 August 2014	26 May 2015[20]	25	20	3	2	63	14	080.00	2014–15 Divizia Națională 2014–15 Moldovan Cup
Lilian Popescu	Moldova	27 May 2015[21]	5 October 2015	13	7	4	2	21	9	053.85	2015 Moldovan Super Cup
Zoran Vulić	Croatia	7 October 2015	12 June 2016[22]	21	17	2	2	43	9	080.95	2015–16 Divizia Națională
Bruno Irles	France	22 July 2016[23]	23 September 2016[24]	11	7	1	3	23	9	063.64	2016 Moldovan Super Cup
Victor Mihailov (interim)	Moldova	23 September 2016	4 October 2016	1	1	0	0	2	0	100.00
Roberto Bordin	Italy	4 October 2016[25]	24 April 2018[26]	62	40	14	8	145	40	064.52	2016–17 Divizia Națională 2016-17 Moldovan Cup 2017 Divizia Națională
Victor Mihailov (interim)	Moldova	24 April 2018[26]	7 June 2018[27]	5	2	2	1	6	4	040.00
Goran Sablić	Croatia	7 June 2018[27]	27 April 2019[28]	35	21	5	9	64	24	060.00	2018 Divizia Națională
Zoran Zekić	Croatia	30 April 2019[29]	21 October 2020	53	41	8	4	136	21	077.36	2019 Divizia Națională 2018–19 Moldovan Cup
Victor Mikhailov (Caretaker)	Moldova	21 October 2020	18 December 2020	7	5	1	1	14	3	071.43
Yuriy Vernydub	Ukraine	18 December 2020	24 February 2022[30]	53	39	9	5	152	26	073.58	2020–21 Divizia Națională
Dmitro Kara-Mustafa (Acting)	Ukraine	24 February 2022[31]		11	9	0	2	24	4	081.82	2021–22 Divizia Națională

Information correct as of match played 29 April 2022. Only competitive matches are counted.

• Notes:

P – Total of played matches W – Won matches D – Drawn matches L – Lost matches GS – Goal scored GA – Goals against
%W – Percentage of matches won Nationality is indicated by the corresponding FIFA country code(s).