Champions League & Europa League Play-offs Draw: Tottenham vs Young Boys, Manchester City vs Timisoara, Liverpool vs Trabzonspor
The UEFA Champions League and the Europa League playoffs draws have taken place in Nyon, and Tottenham Hotspur can thank heavens that they have been handed the easiest possible tie against Swiss minnows BSC Young Boys.
Tottenham could have faced a tricky tie against Sampdoria or a daunting trip to Kiev to face Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev or taking on Celtic’s conquerors in sporting Braga of Portugal, but luck was on their side as they were handed the easiest of draws and now stand just one step away from a place in the Champions League group stages.
But the pick of the draw was the mouth-watering clash between Mesut Ozil’s Werder Bremen against the 1991 Serie A winners Sampdoria, while Martin Jol’s Ajax will face Dynamo Kiev in what will be another exciting clash.
Frederic Kanoute and Luis Fabiano’s Sevilla will pit their wits against their Iberian neighbours Braga while Zenit St. Petersburg will take on AJ Auxerre for a right to play in the Champions League group stages.
While over from the Champions pot, Salzburg will play Hapoel Tel Aviv, Rosenborg face Copenhagen, Basel take on unknown Moldova outfit FC Sheriff, while Sparta Prague will head to Zilina and Partizan Belgrade will face the Belgian Champions Anderlecht.
Tottenham fans will be jumping with joy, as their club was in a pot against some very tough sides. However, they’re not in the clear just yet.
Young Boys had previously caused a massive upset as they edged out Turkish giants Fenerbahce by one goal to nil to send them crashing out of the competition.
Ajax were, however, very lucky as they defeated PAOK FC just on away goals rule to now set up a tantalizing clash with Dynamo Kiev.
Spurs were seeded for this draw according to UEFA’s club coefficient rankings and now are on the brink of making their first ever appearance at the continental stage since 1962.
When Spurs were last in this competition, they pulled off a sensational win against Eusebio’s Benfica when they defeated them 2-1 at home, but could not hold on to the lead as Benfica overturned the deficit in the next leg winning the tie 4-3 on aggregate before going on to lift the coveted trophy.
A total of 10 matches will be played in the last qualifying round of the Champions League on home and away basis with the first legs scheduled for 17/18 August while the return legs will be played on 24/25 August.
All the play-offs fixtures are as follows:
Champions Route:
Partizan vs Anderlecht, Salzburg vs Hapoel Tel Aviv, Rosenborg vs Kobenhavn, Basel vs Sheriff, Sparta Praha vs Zilina
League Route:
Young Boys vs Tottenham Hotspur, Werder Bremen vs Sampdoria, Dynamo Kyiv vs Ajax, Braga vs Sevilla, Zenit St Petersburg vs Auxerre
Over in the Europa League, Liverpool will face Trabzonspor for a right to play in the Europa League group stages while the moneybags Manchester City will face Romanian minnows FC Timisoara.
A total of 74 clubs were involved in the draw, with Aston Villa being pitted against Rapid Vienna, a team that proved to be their nemesis at the same stage of the same competition last year.
Scottish side Celtic will look to bounce back from their Champions League heartache against Dutch outfit FC Utrecht, while Motherwell will face Eric Djemba-Djemba’s Odense with Dundee United taking on AEK Athens, while the only other side from the English Islands, the Welsh New Saints, will face CSKA Sofia.
The play-offs draw for the Europa League is:
Besiktas v HJK Helsinki, Slovan Bratislava v VfB Stuttgart, CSKA Sofia v The New Saints, FC Sibir Novosibirsk v PSV Eindhoven,Lausanne v Lokomotiv Moskva, BATE Borisov v Marítimo, Gyori ETO v Dinamo Zagreb, Odense v Motherwell, PAOK v Fenerbahçe, Villarreal v FC Dnepr Mogilev, FC Timisoara v Manchester City, SC Vaslui v Lille, Paris Saint-Germain v Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Bayer Leverkusen v Tavriya Simferopol, CSKA Moscow v Anorthosis Famagusta, , Feyenoord v Gent, Genk v FC Porto, Debreceni v Litex Lovech, Hajduk Split v Unirea Urziceni, Aris Thessaloniki v Austria Vienna, Galatasaray v Karpaty Lviv, Palermo v Maribor, Club Brugge v Dinamo Minsk, Omonia v Metalist Kharkiv, Napoli v IF Elfsborg, Sporting Lisbon v Brøndby, Grasshopper Zurich v Steaua Bucharest, Liverpool v Trabzonspor, Celtic v FC Utrecht, Borussia Dortmund v FK Qarabag, AIK v Levski Sofia, Sturm Graz v Juventus, Getafe v APOEL, Dundee United v AEK Athens, AZ Alkmaar v FK Aktobe, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk v Lech Poznan, Rapid Vienna v Aston Villa.
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