Major Update Ongoing! UCL Stats Centre will be undergoing a major revamp in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Champions RoundUp Edition 05

Its a jam packed edition of Champions RoundUp this week as the Qualifying rounds reach their advanced stages!

We'll be looking at the sides taking part a little later, but first ...


Play-Off Preview!

The teams:

FC BAYERN MUNCHEN - Germany:
Finalists in 2010 and four time champions of the UEFA Champions League, they are the top side in the Play Off Round. No one will want the Bavarian giants!

How they got here: Automatically qualified via Bundesliga.

APOEL NICOSIA - Cyprus:
A giant in Cypriot football and they qualified for the Group Stage in 2008/09, they will be a formidable opponent for any side.

How they got here: They beat Korce of Albania in the Second Qualifying Round and Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava in the Third Qualifying Round.

BATE BORISOV - Belarus:
Belorussian powerhouses BATE Borisov have progressed i leaps and bounds since the turn of the decade, and featured in the Group stages before. A less than convincing qualifying round saw them draw against two of the smaller sides in the UEFA Champions League and they will need to improve their performances for the big guns.

How they got here: Aggregate victories over Linfield and Ekranas saw them make it this far.

DINAMO ZAGREB - Croatia:
They have come so close on many occasions of making the group stage, but always fell short at the later qualifying rounds. They will be desperate to make the cut this season so will provide a real threat to the other sides in the Champions pot. They have the quality to make it!

How they got here: Comprehensive victories over Neftchi Baku and HJK Helsinki.

RUBIN KAZAN - Russia:

Wisla Krakow
Maccabi Haifa v KRC Genk
v Malmo FF
FC Copenhagen v Viktoria Plzen
v SK Sturm Graz

Non-Champions Path
Odense BK v Villarreal CF
FC Twente v SL Benfica
Arsenal FC v Udinese Calcio
v FC Zurich
Olympique Lyonnais v Rubin Kazan

Play Off Round Draw

Champions League Play-Off Round draw:

Champions Path
Wisla Krakow v APOEL Nicosia
Maccabi Haifa v KRC Genk
Dinamo Zagreb v Malmo FF
FC Copenhagen v Viktoria Plzen
BATE Borisov v SK Sturm Graz

Non-Champions Path
Odense BK v Villarreal CF
FC Twente v SL Benfica
Arsenal FC v Udinese Calcio
FC Bayern Munchen v FC Zurich
Olympique Lyonnais v Rubin Kazan

Reaction to follow.

Third Qualifying Round Ends

The 20 sides who will compete for a place in the lucrative Group stages have been confirmed after the 15 successful teams in the Third Qualifying Round booked their place to join the 5 sides who automatically qualify.

The Third Qualifying did claim some big casualties as some of Europe's stellar sides were eliminated. Dynamo Kyiv, Rosenborg BK and Panathinaikos headed the list of big teams bidding farewell to the tournament as well as well as some group stage hopefuls such as Trabzonspor, Rangers and FK Partizan who were hoping to match their efforts of group stage qualification last season.

The tournament now enters the final round of qualifying and 10 sides will qualify for the group stage, 5 of which will come from the Champions path and 5 from the non champions path.

The draw takes place on Friday and here is a look at the sides entering and the seeded and unseeded pairings.

CHAMPIONS ROUTE:

Seeded
FC Copenhagen
BATE Borisov
Maccabi Haifa
Dinamo Zagreb
APOEL Nicosia

Unseeded
Wisla Krakow
Sturm Graz
KRC Genk
Viktoria Plez
Malmo FF


NON-CHAMPIONS ROUTE

Seeded
FC Bayern Munchen
Arsenal FC
Olympique Lyonnais
SL Benfica
Villarreal CF

Unseeded
FC Twente
Rubin Kazan
Udinese Calcio
FC Zurich
Odense BK

Play Off Round Looms

The final stage of Qualification is looming as the Play Off Round draw takes place this Friday, 5th August 2011. The winners of the Third Qualifying Round will join up with the 5 sides entering this round.

The following 5 Sides who enter the Play Off Round as Non-Champions are:

Arsenal FC
FC Bayern Munchen
Olympique Lyonnais
Udinese Calcio
Villarreal CF

The draw result will be published here on UCLCentre.

Champions RoundUp - Edition 04

Hi and welcome to another edition of Champions RoundUp! We look at three games this week that include some of Scandinavia's finest as they embark tough opposition in the Third Qualifying Round!


We start this weeks edition in Helsinki, Finland as HJK Helsinki took on Croatian Champions Dinamo Zagreb. In what was always an intriguing match-up, the tie did not disappoint. HJK fresh from their emphatic 13-0 aggregate win over Welsh Champions Bangor City went into the game brimming in confidence and it showed in the early stages of the game. 20-year-old Alexander Ring put the Finnish champions ahead on 14 minutes and it capped off a great start for the Finns. However 5 minutes later disaster struck for HJK as Rafinha put the ball in his own net and it somewhat knocked the stuffing out of HJK, but both sides searched rigorously for the wining goal and it came near the end on 77 minutes for the visitors, as Sammir's strike put a hammer blow to HJK's chances of progressing as they now face a massive uphill task of trying to overcome a 2-1 deficit in Zagreb on Wednesday.


Next we go to Denmark and the capital, Copenhagen as FC Copenhagen began their Champions League adventure against Irish champions Shamrock Rovers. FC Copenhagen were out to emulate their efforts from last season as they progressed to the dizzy heights of the Round Of 16 last season. Shamrock Rovers were fresh after a 1-0 aggregate win over Flora Tallinn and proved to be no pushovers in Parken Stadium as they weathered most of the Copenhagen storm and came out with a credible 1-0 defeat to give them a great chance of making the Play Off round. It was a game that had chances on both ends and some fantastic goalkeeping from both sides kept the tie in the balance for the second leg i Tallaght. Defender Solvi Ottesen who is on a bit of a goalscoring streak lately having put two past Odense in a high profile league match prior to this week was the only scorer early on the 4th minute in what must have been a scare for Rovers in fear of what was to come, but Rovers held solid and it sets up a fantastic prospect next week as both sides will fancy their chances.

Finally we head to Trondheim, Norway as heavyweights Rosenborg BK took on Czech Republic champions Victoria Plzen who enter this competition for the first time in their history. On paper the Norwegians have the experience of featuring in many group stage's and beyond in the UEFA Champions League, but a Czech side is always going to be tricky in this competition and RBK found that to be the case as they suffered a scalp and lost 1-0 at home to now face a tough battle in Plzen to keep alive their Champions League dream.






That's it for this week, next week we will be reviewing the sides in the Play Off Round as well as reporting three selected games. To keep track of the Third Qualifying Round click HERE

Champions RoundUp

Welcome to another edition of Champions RoundUp. This week saw the conclusion of the Second Qualifying Round and had no major shocks or big casualties.

Irish champions Shamrock Rovers were the first side to book their place in the Third Qualifying Round after they held out to draw 0-0 with Estonian Champions Flora Tallinn in Tallinn in the rounds early kick off. The hard fought tie in which Shamrock Rovers won 1-0 on aggregate earns them the reward of playing Danish giants FC Copenhagen in the Third Qualifying Round.

First Qualifying Round winners, F91 Dudelange and Valletta FC were both eliminated in the Second Qualifying Round meaning all participants in the First Qualifying Round are now inactive in the tournament. Dudelange were beaten home and away by Slovenian champions NK Maribor to lose 5-1 on aggregate. Meanwhile Valletta, despite a brave showing crashed out to Ekranas of Lithuania , losing 4-2 on aggregate. Valletta despite their free scoring form in the UEFA Champions League were unable to match that performance at the back and that proved costly. NK Maribor will now face a tough prospect in Israeli stalwarts Maccabi Haifa, who despite a scare in Bosnia saw of Borac 7-4 on aggregate and Ekranas' efforts have earned them a tie against Belorussian champions BATE Boriosv who all eyes will be on after they struggled against Northern Irish champions Linfield FC.

APOEL Nicosia who featured in the Group Stages recently will be looking to repeat that feat this season, and they got off to a great start in that quest by eliminating Albanian champions KS Skenderbeu with ease putting six past them over to legs to win 6-0 on aggregate. APOEL will now face a tricky assignment in Slovan Bratislava.

Before we go here is a look at all the Results in the Second Qualifying Round Ties:

Flora Tallinn 0-0 Shamrock Rovers
Aggregate: 0-1

Dudelange 1-3 NK Maribor
Aggregate: 1-5

Tobol Kostanay 1-1 Slovan Bratislava
Aggregate: 1-3

Neftci 0-0 Dinamo Zagreb
Aggregate: 0-3

Ekranas 1-0 Valletta
Aggregate: 4-2

HJK Helsinki 10-0 Bangor City
Aggregate: 13-0

BATE Borisov 2-0 Linfield
Aggregate: 3-1

Litex Lovech 3-0 FK Mogren
Aggregate: 5-1

HB Torshavn 1-1 Malmo FF
Aggregate: 1-3

Viktoria Plzen 5-1 FC Pyunik
Aggregate: 9-1

Wisla Krakow 2-0 Skonto
Aggregate: 3-0

Skendija 0-1 FK Partizan
Aggregate: 0-5

APOEL FC 4-0 Skenderbeu
Aggregate: 6-0

Dacia 2-0 Zestafoni
Aggregate: 2-3

Videoton 3-2 SK Sturm
Aggregate: 3-4

Borac 3-2 Maccabi Haifa
Aggregate: 4-7

Breidablik 2-0 Rosenborg BK
Aggregate: 2-5

Thats it for this week on Champions RoundUp, we congratulate all the successful sides in the Second Qualifying Round and offer our commiserations to those who didn't make it. See you next Saturday!