Champions League: Brest go from amateur football to Real Madrid date in Europe

In some ways, the heroics of 2023-24 caused headaches within the club.

Brest’s modest ground – Stade Francis-Le Ble – does not meet Uefa standards so they must play their European home games in Guingamp, 70 miles away.

But the fairytale nature of their rise is not lost on everyone involved.

“It is a magic story,” Yann Pondaven, podcaster with ‘Brest on Air’, tells BBC Sport.

“People say, ‘look at Girona, look at Bologna, look at Brest, it is the same’. No, you need to understand; come and see the stadium, the training facilities. This is a club that is not supposed to play in the first division.”

Brest face Bayer Leverkusen in their third match of the Champions League campaign on Wednesday and are looking for their third win, having beaten Austrian sides Sturm Graz and Red Bull Salzburg already.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are still to come in the new league phase, but Pondaven says the pressure is already off.

“It was stressful [against Sturm Graz], because they were the team on our level,” he says. “But we won.

“Then we had the first away game in Salzburg. We didn’t care about the result. Maybe it sounds like a lack of ambition, but we won a Champions League game. We were quite happy. Now is just a bonus.

“Real Madrid is the biggest club in the world. It is a game you play on Fifa or Football Manager. It shouldn’t happen but it will.”

The 15-time European champions visit on January 29. Next month, Brest go to the Nou Camp.