Die Meister! Die Besten! Les grandes équipes! The champions!
Champions League qualifying has been fun, unusual -- but there’s more to come
The draw for the Champions League qualification playoff comes tomorrow. We take a quick look back at the qualifying process so far.
Steve Welsh/Getty Images
After the conclusion of the last qualifying round, we’re a little closer to knowing precisely who will be competing for this season’s Champions League. Twenty-two teams are there by right; 10 more will join after the final playoff round, which will be drawn this Friday. Here’s a quick look at the teams that will be going into that draw, and those that have fallen just short.
Who have we lost?
We begin this round up with some sad news. Lincoln Red Imps, the greatest football club in the history of Gibraltar and the first from the Rock to compete in the preliminary stages of the Champions League, fell at the first hurdle. Next time, lads.
Some other, lesser names have also fallen by the wayside, including two former European Cup winners. Steaua Bucharest, who lifted the trophy in 1986, were eliminated in the third qualifying round by Partizan Belgrade, while the mighty Ajax, four-time champions, found themselves bundled out by Rapid Vienna. Manager Frank de Boer has yet to fall on his sword. But unlike their counterparts, 1967 champions Celtic were able to squeak past Qarabag and into the playoffs.
A few other biggish names were knocked out last night as well: Panathinaikos of Athens, Young Boys of Berne, and Fenerbahce of Istanbul. Sad news for Robin van Persie. Fans of energy drinks and Mozart will be disappointed by the failure of Red Bull Salzburg to progress, while fans of advanced statistical analysis will be 17.4% less engaged by the tournament following the elimination of FC Midtjylland.
So who have we got left?
UEFA, in an attempt to ensure that the Champions League contains a few, y’know, actual champions, divide the qualification process into the League Route and the Champions Route. Ten of the teams in the playoff are from the latter route and will play one another: this includes such familiar group stage faces as Cypriot champions APOEL, Swiss champions Basel and Belarusian champions BATE Borisov, who will all be seeded for the draw. Possible opponents include Swedish champions Malmö — who reached the final in 1979 — and Israeli title-winners Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Over in the other half of the draw, things get even tastier. The League Route comprises those teams that that couldn't manage to win anything, yet who get invited along to the jamboree because there's only so much money to be made from the champions of Latvia playing the champions of Estonia, and a Gazprom don't come for free. Five such "non-champions" emerged from the third qualifying round, including two teams that made something of a splash in last season's competition: CSKA Moscow -- who last season beat Manchester City in the group stage -- and Monaco, who roundly embarrassed Arsenal on their way to the quarterfinals.
The other five enter the competition for the first time at this stage: these are the teams from the strongest leagues in Europe. Bayer Leverkusen, finalists in 2002. Valencia, finalists in 2000 and 2001. And Manchester United, three-times winners, nearly back in the big time after the David Moyes interregnum. Most of the teams here would be exceptionally happy to make the Champions League. United, by contrast, absolutely have to.
There could, in short, be some genuinely tricky and interesting playoffs in prospect. United against Lazio, maybe. Valencia against Monaco. Celtic against, er, Skënderbeu Korçë. Albania, apparently. And the best of luck to them.
And who’s going through?
If we knew that, dear readers, we’d be in the bookies.
Oh, go on then. We’ll have a guess. On the non-champions side of things, Valencia were excellent last season, Shakhtar Donetsk and Monaco came through tricky qualifying games with a minimum of fuss, and Manchester United are, well, Manchester United. However, whichever of the seeded sides gets drawn Lazio will be feeling mighty annoyed: Rome’s other team almost nicked an automatic qualifying spot, and have the quality to irritate anybody.
On the other side of things, Basel have been something of a fixture in the group stage in recent years, and are probably the seed to avoid. And whoever gets Astana is in for quite the journey, particularly if they draw Celtic -- at three thousand miles away, the capital of Kazakhstan is closer to Beijing than it is to Glasgow.
Full listings
Champions Route (* denotes seeded team)
FC Basel, Switzerland*
Celtic, Scotland*
APOEL, Cyprus*
BATE Borisov, Belarus*
Dinamo Zagreb, Croatia*
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Partizan, Serbia
Malmö FF, Sweden
Skënderbeu Korçë, Albania
Astana, Kazakhstan
League Route
Manchester United, England*
Valencia, Spain*
Bayer Leverkusen, Germany*
Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine*
Sporting CP, Portugal*
CSKA Moscow, Russia
Lazio, Italy
Club Brugge, Belgium
Monaco, France
Rapid Vienna, Austria
First legs will be played on August 18 and 19, and the reverse fixtures will be on 25/26.
See More:
