THE REMAINING TRIO of Irish sides have learned their paths to the Europa Conference League group stages, with Shamrock Rovers again benefitting from the separate ‘champions’ path.
Domestic champions are placed on a separate side of the qualifying draw, and should Rovers beat Albanian side Teuta in the third qualifying round, their play-off opponents will be the losers of the Europa League tie between Omonoia of Cyprus and Flora Tallinn of Estonia.
Omonia are strong favourites to win that tie, and domestically, Flora are currently three points behind the Levadia side knocked out by Dundalk in the previous round.
On the other side of the draw, Dundalk and Bohemians will face another deeply challenging tie if they can cause upsets in the third qualifying round.
Dundalk will face Anderlecht or KF Laçi of Albania if they can win their third qualifying round tie against Vitesse Arnhem of the Netherlands, while Bohs will meet the winners of the tie between Hibernian and HNK Rijeka of Croatia if they can find a way past Greek giants PAOK.
In Scotland, Celtic are on course to play AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League play-offs. The Hoops will take on the Dutch side if they get past Jablonec of the Czech Republic over the course of the next fortnight. Rangers, meanwhile, will face Olympiacos or Ludogorets in the Champions League play-offs if they get past Malmo.
At least one former winner must fall in the preliminary rounds for the Champions League, meanwhile, after Benfica and PSV Eindhoven were potentially paired in Monday’s playoff draw.
The match-ups for the final 12-team qualifying round were drawn before the teams had played the preceding third qualifying round, meaning all but one of the ties has four potential teams.
Salzburg and Brondby, the two teams to join the competition at this stage, were drawn together.
The makeup of the other five pairings will be settled in two-leg ties which start on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Benfica, who have appeared in seven finals in the competition winning two, must overcome Spartak Moscow to advance while 1988 winners PSV face Midtjylland of Denmark.
Three former finalists were also in the draw.
If Monaco manage to eliminate Sparta Prague they must then beat Genk or Shakhtar Donetsk to return to the group stage.
Malmo, who face former Cup Winners Cup winners Rangers in the third round, would then face Bulgarians Ludogorets or Greeks Olympiacos.
If Red Star Belgrade beat Sheriff of Moldova they would face old Croatian rivals Dinamo Zagreb or Legia Warsaw.
The six winners will advance to the group stage while losers will drop down to the Europa League. Under the two track system adopted by UEFA, some will advance directly but others would have to qualify.
For that reason many of the teams in the Champions League draw were also included in the Europa League draw that followed.
With reporting by © – AFP, 2021
