Paide had overcome Bruno's Magpies (Gibraltar) in round one of qualifying, across two legs, while Nõmme beat Albanian club Tirana Partizani in the same round.

On Thursday, in front of more than 3,200 spectators at the Kadriorg Stadium, about a third of whom had traveled from Sweden, the visitors opened their account in the seventh minute, with a strike from attacking midfielder Bersant Celina, formerly of Manchester City.

The scoreline remained that way at halftime despite chances for both sides, and 12-time Swedish domestic champions AIK doubled their account at the 68th minute thanks to a goal from Hungarian midfielder Aron Csongvai.

Paide fought valiantly to the end but failed to score, and so go into the second leg in Stockholm on the last day of the month with a two-goal deficit, both of them away goals.

Meanwhile Nõmme Kalju FC put itself in its first leg qualifier in the same tournament, away to St Patrick's Athletic F.C.

The visitors were down to nine men in Dublin in the second half after midfielder Rommi Siht was sent off for a second yellow card.

After substituting defender Maksim Podholjuzin due to injury, a second Nõmme player, Ukrainian defender Danõlo Maštšenko was ejected from the field of play, again for a second yellow, 20 minutes before full time and with the score still at 0-0.

The hosts had already been pressing before these misfortunes befell Nõmme, but the Estonian side managed to hold on and keep a clean sheet, being fully on the defensive – until the last minute of regular time, when Christopher Forrester finally sealed the win for the home team.

Again the second leg is on July 31, this time in Tallinn.

The UEFA Conference League is the third tier of European club football, after the more well-known Champions League and Europa League series.

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