Champions League Draw: The Little Guys get their Chance

It doesn’t seem very long ago that we were watching AC Milan defeat Liverpool in the Champions League final. After an interminably long month off the gang at UEFA are ready to get the party started for the 2007/2008 Champions League competition. The draw for the first two rounds was made on Friday.

While the competition is best known for being the playground for the rich and powerful, the first couple rounds are quite the opposite. The big fish in small ponds get their moment in the sun, even though the games are played when most of us are more concerned with lying in the sun ourselves than with watching Champions League football.

There are always interesting stories about the teams that are in the early rounds of the competition. For the first time ever there is a club from Andorra. FC Rangers will represent the tiny country when they face Moldova’s FC Sheriff. Montenegro will also have its first representative in the Champions League but they can be forgiven since they’ve only been a country for about 25 minutes. FK Zeta gets the call and if they win their first round match against Lithuania’s FBK Kaunas they will get the experience of playing Rangers.

And then there are the Welsh champion The New Saints. Called Total Network Solutions when it lost to Liverpool in 2005, when their sponsor was bought out it only kept their initials. The New Saints are based in the central Welsh town of Llansantffraid, which has a population of some 1,000.

First round (ties to be played 17/18 & 24/25 July)

Khazar Lenkoran v D Zagreb
Apoel FC v Bate Borisov
FC Sheriff v FC Rangers
Hafnarfjodur v HB Torshavn
New Saints FC v FK Ventspils
FK Pobeda v Levadia Tallinn
Olimpi Rustavi v FC Astana
FK Zeta v FBK Kaunas
Tampere United v S.S Murata
F91 Dudelange v MSK Zilina
Linfield v IF Elfsborg
Derry City v FC Pyunik
Marsaxlokk FC v FC Sarajevo
NK Domzale v KF Tirana

Second round (ties to be played 31 July/1 August & 7/8 August)

Derry City/FC Pyunik v Shakhtar Donetsk
Crvena Zvezda v FK Pobeda/Levadia Tallinn
Rangers v FK Zeta/FBK Kaunas
Debreceni VSC v Linfield/IF Elfsborg
Zaglebie Lubin v Steaua Bucuresti
KRC Genk v Marsaxlokk FC/FK Sarajevo
New Saints FC/FK Ventspils v FC Salzburg
Olimpi Rustavi/FC Astana v Rosenborg BK
Hafnarfjodur/HB Torshavn v Apoel FC/Bate Borisov
FC Coepenhagen v Beitar Jerusalem
F91 Dudelange/MSK Zilina v Slavia Prague
Tampere Utd/S.S Murata v Levski Sofia
NK Domzale/KF Tirana v Khazar Lenkoran/D Zagreb
Besiktas JK v FC Sheriff/ FC Rangers

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Category: Champions League