Morning all! We're just a few minutes away from the draw for the playoff round of
Champions League qualifying. Just two games separate the sides involved today from the group stage.
There are 20 teams involved in this draw and the biggest name of the lot is
Manchester United, who will face either CSKA Moscow, Lazio, Club Brugge, Monaco or Rapid Vienna.
There are two halves to this draw - the Champions Route and the League Route, with five top-seeded teams in each half. United are in the League Route and you can see all 20 teams below:
Champions Route (seeded): Basel, Celtic, APOEL, BATE, Dinamo Zagreb
Champions Route (unseeded): Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Partizan, Malmo, Skenderbeu, Astana
League Route (seeded): Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sporting CP
League Route (unseeded): CSKA Moscow, Lazio, Club Brugge, Monaco, Rapid Vienna
So, the League Route seems to have the strongest teams on paper and we're likely to see some of the biggest names in Europe not make it to the group stage. United will want to face Vienna, while Scottish champions
Celtic would probably like to avoid Tel-Aviv and Astana as they are longer trips.
HERE WE GO! UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino (below) is doing his usual briefing, but he's just handed over to Giorgio Marchetti to explain the draw. We're moments away.
It will be the Champions Route first...
Astana vs. APOEL
Skenderbeu vs. Dinamo Zagreb
Celtic vs. Malmo
Basel vs. Maccabi Tel-Aviv
BATE Borisov vs. Partizan Belgrade
I think Celtic will take that. They don't have to travel as far as Albania, Israel or Kazakhstan. The downside is that they do have the home leg first.
The Champions Route is about to take place and there's one tie that can't happen - Shakhtar vs. CSKA because of the tension between Russia and Ukraine. The complications if the two come out are quite drawn out, so let's hope that doesn't happen.
Lazio vs. Bayer Leverkusen
MANCHESTER UNITED vs. Club Brugge
Sporting CP vs. CSKA Moscow
Rapid Vienna vs. Shakhtar Donetsk
Valencia vs. Monaco
AND THERE WE HAVE IT! The ties will be played on August 18/19 and 25/26.
Once we know the 10 teams to come out of the ties, the draw for the group stage will take place on Thursday, August 27.
Here are all 10 ties for the final round of Champions League qualifying before the group stage:
Astana vs. APOEL
Skenderbeu vs. Dinamo Zagreb
Celtic vs. Malmo
Basel vs. Maccabi Tel-Aviv
BATE Borisov vs. Partizan Belgrade
Lazio vs. Bayer Leverkusen
Manchester United vs. Club Brugge
Sporting CP vs. CSKA Moscow
Rapid Vienna vs. Shakhtar Donetsk
Valencia vs. Monaco
The two that stand out for me are Lazio vs. Leverkusen and Valencia vs. Monaco. Only two of those four will be part of the group-stage draw later this month.
Anyway, that's it from us on this commentary. Check back on site a little later for the Europa League qualifying draw, where Southampton will find out their fate. See you there!
