UEFA Champions League, Third Round Qualifying: Rangers, Benfica Look For First Leg Advantages

The group stages of the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League are over a month away, but this week’s start to the Third Qualifying Round of the competition marks the first round of qualifying in which there are quite a few teams that the average casual footy fan has heard of before. A number of solid teams with a very good chance at qualifying for the group stages will be playing in this round, including Rangers, FC Twente, Dynamo Kiev, Benfica, Rubin Kazan and Panathinaikos. The losing teams in all of the qualifiers will be dropped straight into the final round of qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.

The fixtures are broken into two different sections: The Champions Route and the League Route. The Champions Route includes teams who won their league in a league that does not have direct qualification to the Champions League, while the League Route includes teams who finished in high places in leagues with multiple Champions League qualification spots, but did not win their league. Here’s the complete fixture list for the first legs of the Third Qualifying Round ties.