Champions League Playoff Draw – Who’s Going Through?

By: Daryl | August 6th, 2010

playoff There are 20 teams competing for the final 10 places in the 2011 Champions League group stage, which – let’s face it – is the only part of the Champions League that really counts. The Playoff Round draw was this morning, which set up 10 games, of which the 10 winners will move on to the group stage. So this is the final hurdle before the big money group stage.

As explained in our Third Qualifying Round results post, this Playoff Round is divided into a Champions Path and a Non-Champions Path, so as to assure that at least five genuine league champions from smaller nations will make it to the group stage. Draw is below:

Champions Path:
FC Salzburg (AUT) vs. Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
Rosenborg BK (NOR) vs. FC København (DEN)
FC Basel 1893 (SUI) vs. FC Sheriff (MDA)
AC Sparta Praha (CZE) vs. MŠK Žilina (SVK)
FK Partizan (SRB) vs. RSC Anderlecht (BEL)

Non-Champions Path:
BSC Young Boys (SUI) vs. Tottenham Hotspur FC (ENG)
SC Braga (POR) vs. Sevilla FC (ESP)
SV Werder Bremen (GER) vs. UC Sampdoria (ITA)
FC Zenit St. Petersburg vs. (RUS) vs AJ Auxerre (FRA)
FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR) vs. AFC Ajax (NED)

Some good looking ties there. UEFA’s website is playing up the derby angle, with the all Scandinavian showdown between Rosenborg and Copenhagen, the Iberian encounter between Braga and Sevilla, and the Czech vs Slovakian temporary re-union between Sparta Prague and MŠK Žilina. Derby might be pushing it, but geographical proximity certainly adds a little extra interest.

More interesting for the neutral will probably be Werder Bremen vs Sampdoria. Mesut Özil vs Antonio Cassano? I’m in. I’m also curious to see if Spurs can make the most of what’s theoretically a kind draw, as they avoided the likes of Dynamo Kyiv, Zenit and Werder and drew Switzerland’s Young Boys of Bern instead. Ajax were less fortunate. The 1995 Champions League winners haven’t made it to the group stage for half a decade now, and will have to go through Dynamo Kyiv if they want to do so this time.

Games will be played over two legs: August 17th/18th and 24th/25th. Who do you see going through to the Champions League group stage?

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Category: Champions League

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Man United Offside

I like the usage of "half a decade" instead of five years... Sounds so much longer...
FCBayern Fan

Well for one thing, I want the Bundesliga to get ahead of Serie in the UEFA coefficent.Why? Because in Germany there is 5-6 top teams, FC Bayern, Shalke, Wolsburg, Leverkusen, Stuttgart or Borussia.

As in Spain there is only Barcelona and Real Madrid, I personally think that they should get 2-3 Champions League spots.

I think Bundesliga should be second, after the Premier League, then Serie A, then La Liga. But I don't think La Liga will give up their second spot, as Real and Barcelona will always be in the finals of the Champions League, something that I really hate.

Go Werder. Make Serie A the league that really is.
Martin

The other interesting wrinkle to the Bremen-Sampdoria match-up is that the Bundesliga and Serie A are pretty close in their UEFA League coefficients, with the Bundesliga pulling slightly ahead last season despite Inter winning the Champions League. Now, the difference between 3rd and 4th is very big, because the 3rd place league puts its top 3 teams into the group stage and its 4th place team in the non-champion play-off round; the 4th place team puts its top 2 teams into the group stage and its 3rd place team in the non-champion play-off round. Essentially, it’s the difference between 4 champions league spots versus 3.

By passing Serie A last season, Bundesliga guaranteed that its top 4 teams this season will be in the Champions League next season, and Italy’s CL berths went down to 3. Since a spot in the group stages is worth ~30-40 million pounds, this is obviously pretty massive for a league to gain/lose a spot.

The way the UEFA coefficent is calculated is complicated, arcane, and a little counterintuitive. For one thing, doing well in the UEFA Cup matters a lot, which is mainly how the Bundesliga has managed to catch and surpass Seria A. But a big part of it is that getting a team into the group stage garners a league a huge amount of coefficient points.

If anyone is still reading at this point, you’re probably asking why this is relevant. Well, if Samp win, that means Italy gets 4 into the group stage against Germany’s 2, which could set them on their way to getting their 4th Champions League spot back. If Bremen win, it’s 3 against 3, and Germany retain the upper hand.

I know very little about either team, and care even less, but that match is very intriguing to me because of the possible ramifications for league superiority over the next decade or so.
Aaron Giambattista

Poor Sampdoria. Werder is a very good team, and Sampdoria is in chaos. New coach, new transfer director (both got poached by Juventus) and they haven't made any moves on the transfer market, other than to sign a keeper. (they lost two) Rumors around Italy said they'd wait to see if they qualified for group stages to go through, which would be a big mistake. This is the whole Italy v. Germany UEFA coefficients battle again.

They've got a hell of a team though- Cassano and Pazzini are probably the two best Italian strikers over the last year and a half, Poli-Palombo are a great midfield duo, defense is solid as well. They'll give it their best shot, but I see Werder progressing.