Friday, August 08, 2014

UEFA Champions League Playoff Round Draw: Thanks To Legia Forfeit, Bhoys Will Get Crack At Maribor; Red Bulls Get Malmo, Black Eagles Get Gunners, Napoli Get Athletic Bilbao

The draw for the UEFA Champions League's playoff round took place on Friday at Nyon, Switzerland.  The first games will be played on August 19 and 20, with the return contests to take place on August 26 and 27.  The winners would advance to the Champions League's group stage and the losers will play in the group stage of the Europa League.  The game-one hosts are listed first.

Champions Route:

August 19 and 27:

FC Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) vs. Malmo FF (Sweden)

Steaua Bucharest (Romania) vs. Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria)

August 20 and 26:

NK Maribor (Slovenia) vs. Celtic (Scotland)*

Aalborg BK (Denmark) vs. APOEL FC (Cyprus)

FC Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) vs. FC BATE Borisov (Belarus)

League Route:

August 19 and 27:

Besiktas (Turkey) vs. Arsenal (England)

FC Copenhagen (Denmark) vs. Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)

Napoli (Italy) vs. Athletic Bilbao (Spain)

August 20 and 26:

Standard Liege (Belgium) vs. Zenit Saint Petersburg (Russia)

LOSC Lille Metropole (France) vs. FC Porto (Portugal)

*Legia Warsaw had won the second game of their third-qualifying-round series with Celtic 2-0 and had won the two-match series 6-2 on aggregate.  However, the Polish club fielded a suspended player as a substitute, thereby forfeited the game 3-0, enabling the Bhoys to take the series (with the aggregate score at 4-4) on away goals.  Legia will instead play in the Europa League's playoff round.

Already qualified for the Champions League's group stage:

Spain:

Real Madrid (defending champions)

Atletico Madrid

FC Barcelona

England:

Manchester City

Liverpool

Chelsea

Germany:

Bayern Munich

Borussia Dortmund

FC Schalke 04

Italy:

Juventus

AS Roma

Portugal:

SL Benfica

Sporting Club Portugal

France:

Paris Saint-Germain

AS Monaco

Ukraine:

Shakhtar Donetsk

Russia:

CSKA Moscwo

Netherlands:

Ajax Amsterdam

Turkey:

Galatasaray

Belgium:

RSC Anderlecht

Greece:

Olympiacos

Switzerland:

FC Basel

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