UEFA Champions League and Europa League Play-off Draw 2014/15 - As It Happened
Champions League Play-off: Besiktas v Arsenal - Maribor v Celtic
Europa League Play-off: AEL Limassol v Tottenham Hotspur - KSC Lokeren v Hull City
12:19: Well, that's all we've got time for on this live text where Arsenal, Celtic, Hull City and Tottenham will all be content with the outcome of their draw, as they seek to progress to the next stage of the Champions League and Europa League. Until next time, goodbye.
12:16: So as the draw continues, lets have a look at who Tottenham and Hull have drawn in the play-off round. Limassol, who were knocked out of Champions League qualifying by Zenit, take on Spurs after finishing second in the Cyprus Premier League. For Steve Bruce's team, it's a trip to Belgium to face Lokeren. One again, fancy both teams will be content with that.
KSC Lokeren v Hull City
Limassol v Tottenham Hotspur
12:10: We're going through the first few pots, still awaiting Tottenham and Hull.
12:06: A quick look back at last year's final in which Sevilla defeated Benfica on penalties. Now back to Marchetti, who begins to explain the draw process. We could be here for a while...
12:00: Infantino and Marchetti will guide us through this second draw of the afternoon from Switzerland. It's very much a good cop, bad cop relationship with Infantino delivering Uefa's cheery message while Marchetti has the hard facts. Here we go again...
11:54: Hopefully our friends at Uefa will get a move on with this draw with so many teams to be drawn. These match will take place in the same week as the Champions League play-offs, though we are yet to be given specific dates on those ties. The Europa League remains reloigously to Thursday nights from here on in.
11:48: Uefa have done their best to make the Europa League draw look as complicated as possible, but in truth it is basically the same as the Champions League draw. The only difference is numbers will represent each team in each group, and once two numbers are drawn from each group, they will be put into another pot to determine who plays their tie at home first. All six pots are available below including Legia Warsaw, who replace Celtic of course.
Draw pots - seeds in bold
Group 1
Seeded: 1 FC Lokomotiv Moskva, 2 VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach, 3 AC Sparta Praha, 4 Villarreal CF, 5 BSC Young Boys
Unseeded: 6 FK Sarajevo, 7 Apollon Limassol FC, 8 PEC Zolle, 9 FC Astana, 10 Debreceni VSC
Group 2
Seeded: 1 Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC, 2 FC Zürich, 3 CD Nacional, 4 Tottenham Hotspur FC, 5 FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Unseeded: 6 FC Spartak Trnava, 7 Asteras Tripolis FC, 8 FC Dinamo Minsk, 9 AEL Limassol FC, 10 HNK Hajduk Split
Group 3
Seeded: 1 GNK Dinamo Zagreb, 2 FC Twente, 3 PAOK FC, 4 SK Rapid Wien, 5 Trabzonspor AŞ
Unseeded: 6 Qarabağ FK, 7 FC Petrolul Ploieşti, 8 FC Zimbru Chisinau, 9 HJK Helsinki, 10 FC Rostov
Group 4
Seeded: 1 FC Dinamo Moskva, 2 Torino FC, 3 Hull City, 4 Legia Warszawa, 5 Olympique Lyonnais
Unseeded: 6 RNK Split, 7 AC Omonia, 8 KSC Lokeren OV, 9 FC Aktobe, 10 FC Astra
Group 5
Seeded: 1 FC Metalist Kharkiv, 2 FK Partizan, 3 AS Saint-Étienne, 4 Rio Ave FC, 5 PSV Eindhoven
Unseeded: 6 Neftçi PFK, 7 Ruch Chorzów, 8 Kardemir Karabükspor, 9 IF Elfsborg, 10 FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk
Group 6
Seeded: 1 Feyenoord, 2 FC Internazionale Milano, 3 Real Sociedad de Fútbol, 4 FC Sheriff, 5 Panathinaikos FC
Unseeded: 6 Club Brugge KV, 7 Stjarnan, 8 FC Midtjylland, 9 HNK Rijeka, 10 Grasshopper Club, 11 FC Zorya Luhansk, 12 FC Krasnodar
11:35: Right so after the Champions League draw we move to it's sister competition, the Europa League. Hull City, after their first ever European win last night, and Tottenham Hotspur - fifth place finishers in the Premiern League last season - are the interested parties here. With 62 teams to draw however, we could be here a while.
11:29: After their second chance in the Champions League, what will Celtic find in Maribor of Slovenia? Champions by seven points last season, they were knocked out of the play-off round last season and dropped into the Europa League where they faced Wigan Athletic, losing to the then FA Cup winners at the DW Stadium. After emerging from their group, they were knocked out in the round of 32 by eventual winners Sevilla.
11:23: So what threat might Besiktas present to Arsenal? Managed by former Croatia manager Slaven Bilic, they finished third in the Turkish Premier League last season but this summer have recrutied Demba Ba from Chelsea. They will be eager to take their chance in Europe with both hands, having been banned rom Uefa competition last season. Either way, Arsenal will have taken that draw at the start against the lowest ranked side in the non-champions pot.
11:19: So Arsenal are handed a tough, but very managable two-legged tie against Turkish side Besiktas to reach the group stage of the Champions League. Celtic, reinstated into the competition this morning, will face Slovenian champions Maribor.
Athletic Bilbao v Napoli
Lille v FC Porto
FC Copenhagen v Bayer Leverkusen
Standard Liège v Zenit
Beşiktaş v Arsenal
11:12: Celtic back in the competition and they will face Malmo over two legs for a group stage place. Now for the non-champions route.
Slovan Bratislava v BATE Borisov
Steaua Bucharest v Ludogorets Razgrad
Aalborg v APOEL
Salzburg v Malmo
Maribor v Celtic
11:08: Not the technical co-ordinator of the draw, Giorgio Marchetti comes out to explain the draw, in which teams have been split in the champions and non-champions route, with five of those teams seeded. Wonder if Uefa make it intentionally difficult so that Marchetti has a job. Here we go....
11:04: Ok so here we go as we cross to Switzerland for the first part of the draw. Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino will guide us through both draws. He is reviewing the third knock-out round before recapping last year's final between Real and Atletico Madrid.
10:57: Not far away now from crossing to Switzerland for the play-off draw. We will have to wait a moment or two after the draw to discover on which dates both games will be played on, but the first legs are scheduled for 19/20 August while the second legs are on 26/27 August.
10:47: Where do you go from there? Well, we might as well start to outline the format for the first of our draws, which comes from the Champions League where 20 teams stand just two games away from the group stage of the competition.
The teams have been split into two groups of 10 and then halved into seeded and unseeded teams. Celtic are a seeded club in the champions pot, while Arsenal are the highest seed in the non-champions pot. Here is a full run-down of each group:
Non-Champions pot
Seeded: Arsenal, FC Porto, Zenit, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Napoli
Unseeded: Athletic Bilbao, LOSC Lille, FC København, R. Standard de Liège, Beşiktaş
Champions pot
Seeded: FC Salzburg, Steaua Bucharest, APOEL, Celtic, BATE Borisov
Unseeded: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad, NK Maribor, ŠK Slovan Bratislava, Malmö, Aalborg
10:39: SENSATIONAL! Celtic have been reinstated into the Champions League after Uefa rule that opponents Legia Warsaw, who won 6-1 on aggregate, forfeit the second leg 3-0 and go out on away goals following the fielding an ineligible player in the second leg at Murrayfield. The Scottish champions remain in the competition.
10:30: Here we go again then. Less than four weeks after the World Cup final in Rio, the regular football season is ready to take a grip of our attention and emotions ahead of a nine month rollercoaster. The football season in England gets under way tonight, but before that we have the draw for those Champions League and Europa League sides who have ambitions of reaching the group stage of each competition. Arsenal, Hull City, Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic (more on that later) have an interest in today's two draws in Switzerland, which will significantly shape their hopes on the continent this term.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.