Friday, August 7, 2009

Champions League draw: Arsenal and Celtic to learn fate


Arsenal and Celtic will discover who they must overcome to secure a place in the Champions League group stages when the qualifying draw is staged at Nyon at 1100 GMT.

Arsenal have a one in five chance of facing Tony Mowbray's side in a play-off on their 'non-champions path' to the group stage of the competition.

Celtic overcame a 1-0 first-leg deficit to claim a 2-1 aggregate win over Dinamo Moscow in the third qualifying round on Wednesday.

As well as Celtic, there are other dangerous teams Wenger's men could come up against.

Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, Serie A side Fiorentina, Belgian club Anderlecht and FC Timisoara of Romania are the remaining four possible opponents for Arsenal.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said: "Qualification is not crucially financially for the club, it is crucial on the sporting side."

Other than Arsenal, French outfit Lyon will probably be the side Celtic fear most in the play-off round.

Sporting Lisbon, who finished runners-up to Porto in the Portuguese league last season, are also possible opponents, as are Greek team Panathinaikos and German side Stuttgart.

The winners of the five 'non-champions path' ties will reach the group phase, as will the winners of the five ties in the 'champions path', so-called because they are all domestic league winners.

There are 10 teams in this section of the draw, with the five seeds being Olympiacos of Greece, FC Copenhagen of Denmark, Bulgaria's Levski Sofia, Israeli side Maccabi Haifa and FC Zurich of Switzerland.

Those five will face one of the five unseeded sides, who are Salzburg of Austria, APOEL Nicosia from Cyprus, FK Ventspils of Latvia, Debreceni VSC from Hungary and Moldova's FC Sheriff.

The play-offs will be played over two legs on Aug 18/19 and 25/26.

The Europa League play-off draw will also take place today at Uefa headquarters with Everton, Aston Villa, Hearts, Fulham and St Patrick's Athletic all involved, along with the likes of Ajax, Valencia, Villarreal, Lazio and FC Twente - former England manager Steve McClaren's Dutch side.

Uefa Champions League play-offs
Non-champions path


Seeded
Unseeded
Arsenal
Fiorentina
Lyon
Atletico Madrid
Sporting Lisbon
Celtic
Panathinaikos
Anderlecht
Stuttgart
FC Timisoara
Uefa Champions League play-offs
Champions path


Seeded
Unseeded
Olympiakos
Salzburg
FC Copenhagen
APOEL FC
Levski Sofia
FK Ventspils
Maccabi Haifa
Debreceni VSC
FC Zurich
FC Sheriff

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