Champions League 3rd Round Fixtures Decided; Or: Who Avoided Barca.

The 3rd qualifying round usually goes unnoticed unless your team is participating simply because it usually shakes out how it should. The minnows go home and the teams deserving of a spot in the group stages somehow found their way. Couple of relatively surprising early exits this year came in the form of Rangers, well documented, and Anderlecht, who were dumped out by BATE Borisov of Belarus, opening the doors for two unexpectedly thievable slots out of the 16. Other than that, pretty predictable.

Big Boys:

• Steve McClaren will be suckling on the teat of karma as his FC Twente boys meet up with Arsene Wenger and his preschool group.

• Juventus, fresh off their European timeout in the corner for cheating, have been handed a two-legged friendly against Slovakian side Artmedia.

• Wisla Krakow drew the short straw: Barcelona. We hardly knew ye, Wisla.

• Liverpool go up against Belgian champions Standard de Liege, who can feel a bit slighted because they actually could’ve made the groups with a better draw.

• Schalke and Atletico are both just shy of being “big boys”, but this is undoubtedly the best matchup of the round, so it gets a pass.

The Hopeless:

• Artmedia. Oh boy. Hide the women and children.

• Anorthosis of Cyprus, who don’t even get the benefit of a far away vacation. They get Olympiacos.

• Partizan. They may have one of the best youth systems in the world, but Fenerbahce has been cherry picking Euro champs Spain and, well, that’s really that.

• Dinamo Zagreb. Lost Luka Modric and Shakhtar has one of those sneaky good teams which has been buying up premier South American talent recently.

• Twente. Steve McClaren. Steve McClaren. Steve McClaren.

• Wisla’s home fixture is being sponsored by Vaseline.

Feel like BATE and Kaunas should be on this list, but they damn sure won a bit of respect with their surprising wins. Pass.

Some of these have been known for some time while others had to wait for the other qualifying games to run their course. Like AaB, who have seen Christmas come in August this year. So here are all the matchups, to be played next week and the last week of August:

Fiorentina (ITA) – Slavia (CZE)
Juventus (ITA) – Artmedia (SVK)
Sparta (CZE) – Panathinaikos (GRE)
Spartak Moskva (RUS) – Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
Levski (BUL) – BATE (BEL)
Shakhtar (UKR) – Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
Anorthosis (CYP) – Olympiacos (GRE)
AaB (DEN) – Kaunas (LIT)
Galatasaray (TUR) – Steaua (ROM)
Partizan (SER) – Fenerbahçe (TUR)
Brann (NOR) – Marseille (FRA)
Schalke (GER) – Atlético (SPA)
Twente (HOL) – Arsenal (ENG)
Standard (BEL) – Liverpool (ENG)
Guimarães (POR) – Basel (SWI)
Barcelona (SPA) – Wisła Kraków (POL)

(Another mighty interesting game will be Spartak v Dinamo; battle of the old country.)

For the helluva it, your 2008-09 Champions League group stage participants via qualifying:

Fiorentina, Juventus, Sparta, Spartak, Levski, Shaktar, Olympiacos, AaB, Steaua, Fenerbahce, Marseille, Atletico, Arsenal, Liverpool, Guimaraes, Barcelona.

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Category: World Football