Manchester United have played in 32 of the 55 UEFA member nations during their long and illustrious history in European competition. On Thursday night, that will become 33 when they play a match in Moldova for the first time.
Their Europa League group game against Sheriff Tiraspol is fascinating for various reasons that stray well beyond football into history and geopolitics.
The fixture has become far more significant for Erik ten Hag's team after they lost 1-0 to Real Sociedad last week. If United want to advance deep into this competition, they can't afford another setback in this far-flung corner of Europe.
What's more, the postponement of the two Premier League games that bookend this game - at Crystal Palace last Sunday and at home to Leeds this - because of the Queen's death means Ten Hag has travelled with a stronger squad than first intended. United's players will then go off for international games.
Officially, 563 United fans will attend the game, taking wayward routes because there are no direct flights from the UK to the Moldovan capital Chisinau.
It would have been even more of an adventure had the match been played in Tiraspol, the largest city in the breakaway state of Transnistria and Sheriff's normal home.
But UEFA moved the match on security grounds from the 12,746-capacity Sheriff Stadium to the 10,400-capacity Zimbru Stadium in Chisinau, a 90-minute drive away.
There's no official border shown on the maps because Transnistria isn't internationally recognised but this region, known as a post-Soviet 'frozen conflict' zone, has a very different feel to the rest of Moldova.
Sheriff's fans would consider themselves more Russian than Moldovan, whose people have strong ties with Romania, the country's neighbour to the west.
The flag of Transnistria - officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic - features the Soviet hammer and sickle emblem in the top left corner and Russia maintains a considerable military presence there.
Russia's flag flies alongside that of Transnistria on top of the parliament building in Tiraspol and there is a towering statue of Lenin at the entrance.
As the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, there was a brief conflict here because the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, as it was then known, wanted to stick with the Russians.
And in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, the head of the Transnistrian parliament even asked to formally join Russia - but this didn't happen.
Given that this slither of land has Ukraine along all of its entire eastern frontier, the ongoing conflict there has thrust it back into the spotlight.
Though Transnistria insisted it would remain neutral in the war, Ukrainian military intelligence feared that the Russian government would stage 'false flag' attacks on the Russian troops stationed there to justify opening up another axis to their invasion.
The subsequent retreat of Russian forces from southern areas of Ukraine has made this less likely but bomb threats have put all of Moldova on alert.
Last month, ABC News reported Moldova had received almost 60 bomb threats since the beginning of July, with targets ranging from the international airport to shopping centres and hospitals.
Most of the threats arrived via email and were traced to IP addresses in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, believed to be part of a campaign to destabilise the country.
A series of explosions occurred in Transnistria back in April, raising fears that Moldova, which isn't in NATO or the European Union, would be sucked into a conflict happening just a few hundred miles away.
Moldova was granted EU candidate status in June, which sparked another wave of bomb threats originating in Russia.
While Chisinau and Moldova are considered safe for travellers, the British Foreign Office advises against all travel to Transnistria due to its proximity to Ukraine.
So United will play in Chisinau and know enough about their opponents on Thursday to appreciate they won't be pushovers.
Sheriff qualified for the Champions League for the first time last season after battling through four qualifying rounds, thrusting them and their shadowy ownership into the spotlight.
Even more so when they won their first two group games - a 2-0 home win over Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk was unexpected enough - but the 2-1 victory over eventual winners Real Madrid in the Bernabeu that followed was seismic.
Sebastien Thill, a little-known midfielder from Luxembourg, enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame by scoring their last-minute winner to spark wild celebrations.
The fairytale didn't continue, however. Sheriff were defeated home and away by Inter Milan, then lost 3-0 at home to Real before a draw against Shakhtar saw them end up third in the group.
They were then eliminated on penalties by Portuguese side Braga after dropping into the Europa League.
This season, they once again slugged their way through four qualifying rounds to reach this Europa League group and a 3-0 win over Cypriots Omonia Nicosia last week underlined their intention not to be pushed over.
Though the security situation spooked some players, Sheriff have a remarkably cosmopolitan squad with 20 different nationalities represented from Albania to Niger.
Domestically, they are utterly dominant. Despite only being founded in 1998, Sheriff have won 20 league championships in Moldova, including the last seven in a row.
They already have a six-point lead at the top of this season's Moldovan Super Liga after just seven rounds of games.
It certainly helps that their president is Viktor Gushan, the most powerful man in the region and chief of the ubiquitous Sheriff brand that owns everything from supermarkets and petrol stations to breweries and construction firms.
The corporation also has a firm grip on the state government through the nationalist Obnovlenie party, which has 29 of 33 seats in the Transnistrian Supreme Council.
Gushan, believed to be a former KGB officer, is a secretive figure who allegedly owns several luxury residences in Ukraine and made a lot of money from smuggling cigarettes, alcohol and food over the Ukrainian-Moldovan border.
It helps explain why Sheriff have a $200million stadium and state-of-the-art training facilities which are the envy of every other club in the Moldovan league.
They are a club head and shoulders above their domestic competitors and who are starting to make an impact in Europe as well.
United will underestimate them at their peril on Thursday night.